


The Eternity Stones: Part Two

by ariadnesmaze



Series: The Eternity Stone [2]
Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: AU, Aether, Age of Ultron, Asgard, Avengers - Freeform, Avengers Family, Avengers Tower, Avengers sitcom, Avengers: Endgame, Avengers: Infinity War, But not really though, Captain America: Civil War, Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Civil War, Dark Elves, Endgame, Eternity Stone - Freeform, Everyone lives, Final Battle, Grandmaster - Freeform, Happy Ending, Infinity Stones, Infinity War, Iron Man - Freeform, Iron Man 2, Iron Man 3, Irondad, Jeff Goldblum - Freeform, Loki/OFC - Freeform, Loki/original female character - Freeform, Mind Stone, Multi, Nemesis - Freeform, Post Infinity War, Power Stone - Freeform, Ragnarok, Reality Stone, Sakaar, Sakkar - Freeform, Soul Stone, Space Stone, Tesseract, The Winter Soldier - Freeform, Thor - Freeform, Thor: Ragnarok, Thor: The Dark World, Time Stone, Ultron - Freeform, Vormir, avengers fanfiction, endgame spoilers, pre endgame, soulmate au?, thanos - Freeform, the dark world, the first avenger
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-31
Updated: 2019-11-18
Packaged: 2020-04-05 07:34:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 61,137
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19044016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ariadnesmaze/pseuds/ariadnesmaze
Summary: The Eternity Stone has been taken, Kai is struggling to know what is real and what it not. Thanos is rising and so is Arin, will the combined threat of the two be enough to bring the Avengers to their knees?





	1. Chapter One

Chapter One  
Kai

 

“KAI!” Someone was shouting my name, I heard running feet pounding on the crystal floor.

I groaned, opening my eyes. I blinked a few times to try and clear the bright flash that was still imprinted on my corneas. I was lying on the floor of the Mirror Caverns.

It all came rushing back. Oh stars, the Eternity Stone.

I sat up, staring at the broken crystal in the center of the floor, a black hole gaped up at me.

The floors in the Mirror Caverns were thin, a big enough blast could easily break them. A black river rushed below me but that hadn’t been what I had seen a second later.

I had seen a world full of life and as the Eternity Stone opened a portal, I had almost been sucked into it.

The Silene’s who had attacked me hadn’t been as lucky as I had been. They had fallen into the portal and the stone had sealed it up behind them. They were trapped with no way home.

I was so glad that hadn't been me. I had had the strangest dream, that I had been the one to end up in the hole.

My eyes focused on my friends and I felt the strange urge to cry but pushed it down. It felt like it had been years since I had seen them but I had only seen them yesterday.

“The Eternity Stone,” Si said from the corner of the room and I turned to see him crouched over a glowing rock that had rolled off into the corner, it was about the size of a large heart.

Si seemed scared to touch it, almost reverent as he stared into its depths.

I stood up, approaching the stone. I grinned as I beheld it, “I guess this means we’ve won.”

Evan whooped, dancing around with Ayla as Vin shook her head, staring at them. “We need to get this back to the warfront. People are still dying out there,” Vin reminded us and Ayla and Evan stopped dancing.

I leaned down and hesitantly picked up the stone, “let’s get out of here before the floor crumbles away.” As I said that, the floor underneath our feet began to crack.

“You had to say something,” Si sighed, his metal wings furling out from his back. “Let’s get out of here.” He scooped up Vin and they soured out with me, Ayla and Evan tailing behind them.

I whooped in joy as we soared through crashing stalagmites and stalactites. We landed outside the cavern, listening as the floor gave out from deep within.

“Well, no one’s going back in there for a while,” Ayla shrugged, “come on, let’s get back to the palace. We need to stop this war.”

We all grabbed hands, linking our arms together and shadow travelled together and landed just inside the palace walls. I would’ve shadow travelled us directly into the throne room but the Steward of the House liked to have some form of control over my comings and goings so the palace was in order when I entered the door.

After a few quick waves of our hands, we were out of our hunters clothing and back into gowns and suits. “Arin is still on the front lines but I’ve sent word for him,” Evan relayed to me as my knights and I made our way to the doors of my throne room.

I heard a mad scrambling in rooms ahead of me but by the time I reached the rooms, the maids were standing at attention and nobles would bow to me as I passed.

“When the cat's away, the mice play,” Vin whispered to me. I smirked in response.

We arrived at the throne room and the titles were shouted as we moved into the room.

“Her majesty, Queen Kaieada, the first of her name. Queen of Northland and South Kingdom. Duchess of the Summer Isles, Protector of the Realm.” The room swept into a bow as I moved up towards my throne of gold, my crown waiting to be placed on my head.

“Her ladyship, Duchess Evanee, Duchess of the Northland, Royal Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Celestial, and protector of the Seven Cities.” Evan was announced next and I was instantly annoyed by that although I didn’t show it. Vin outranked Evan but due to her...heritage, they tended to degrade her as much as possible. I’d have to fire someone later. Evan was my right hand, she was almost a queen herself, she ruled the Northern lands with just as much liberty as a queen.

“Her royal highness, Princess Vinleigh of…” They always caught up on her name, Silene language’s were hard to pronounce here, “of Fhurs, Lady of the Northland, Defender of the Seven Cities and Royal Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Celestial.” Her titles were said with a little more distaste but Vin nearly smirked and held her head higher. At least they had the courtesy to announce her before Si and Ayla.

“His lordship, Si ‘Dragonslayer.’ Earl of the Summer Isles, Guardsman of the Plains and Royal Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Celestial.” Si was uncomfortable in court and if he wasn’t carrying the Eternity Stone, I was sure he wouldn’t have come.

“Her ladyship, Lady Lynnayla, Commander of the Seven Seas Army and Royal Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Celestial,” Ayla was announced last but that definitely didn’t mean she was least. She was the commander of my navy and had a night job of being one of the most feared pirates of all time.

I sat on my throne, my friends taking their places around the room. Vinleigh and Evanee closest to my feet with Ayla the farthest. Once Arin arrived he would stand to my right. The crown was lowered onto my head, “court is now in session.”

Questions immediately began flying at the glowing stone that was sitting to my left, on the pillow where my crown had rested. Si was standing next to it, out of place and uncomfortable although I could tell he was fascinated by the stone. I was too.

Once I learned how to wield it, I would save my people from the brink of destruction.

“Is that the Eternity Stone?”

“Queen Kaieada, how did you come to possess it?”

“Does this mean the war is over?”

“Will we use it to kill the Silene’s?”

“What does this mean for our armies?”

“Are the troops coming home?”

I held up a hand and silence fell. “I do not appreciate such wildness in my court” I began, adopting the accent that marked me as royalty. “I will answer your questions in my own time and until then, you shall listen to me.”

They all waited with baited breath, I had them on the edge of their seats with anticipation.

Which meant it was the perfect time for Arin to make his unruly entrance. The doors flew open and he marched in, still smelling like the battlefield although his uniform had been cleaned.

“All hail, Lord Vollarin, General of the Queen’s Battalion, Personal Aide-de-Camp to Her Majesty, Lord High Admiral,” Arin took his place beside the throne.

*Impeccable timing,* I hissed to him telepathically. “Yes,” I said out loud, “I have come to possess the Eternity Stone,” whispers flew around the room. “And yes, I plan to use it to end the war.”

“How will you do it?” Lord Eio, a man who had the ability to annoy even the sweetest of people, stepped forwards. Out of place.

*Didn’t I order you to kill him?* I asked Ayla telepathically.

*I can shoot him now if you like,* Ayla replied.

“I will use the Eternity Stone to restore life to our dying world and bring peace between or nations.” I continued.

“Peace!?” Lord Eio spat, “we do not want peace. We want justice! They have plagued our lands for too long! They deserve to die!”

I saw Vinleigh tense up although she did not react. If I did not know her so well I would’ve imagined her to be unbothered.

“ENOUGH!” I thundered, my magic whipped out, wrapping around Lord Eio mouth. “You disrespect my guests and you disrespect me. You do not speak of justice, you speak of vengeance and I will have no more of it in my court. Too many people lie dead due to unnecessary vengeance.”

*You think we should make peace,* Arin sounded appalled. I had talked with him about it before but I think he thought I had been joking.

*I do,* I replied. I felt the relief sweeping from Vin, she didn’t want her people to die needlessly.

“In a weeks time, a summit will be prepared between myself and the king of the Silenes. We will come to a peace and the world will be healed. We will no longer starve, the seasons will no longer last lifetimes and the sun will warm the earth again!”

That sent cheers through the room. I stood and everyone stood with me, sweeping into bows as I, my knights and the Eternity Stone swept from the room and into my private chambers.

I dropped the accent and changed from the dress as everyone else changed from their court clothes as well. Si gently set the Eternity Stone on the table between us and we all stared at it.

It didn’t do anything besides glow slightly.

“So, does anyone know how to turn it on?” Evan asked, “or are we going to wait for it to explode earlier like it did earlier?”

“It exploded?” Arin asked and I forgot that he had missed all the action.

“Oh yeah,” I said, dropping the accent of royalty so I could talk faster, “it destroyed the Mirror Caverns and opened a hole to another reality. Although it closed a few minutes later.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Si had pulled out his notebook, “did you say that it opened a portal to another reality?” Si said, writing that down. “Where did it lead?”

“A snowy forest,” I said, “sorry I wasn’t really intently studying the landscape, I was trying not to fall in.”

“A snowy forest?” Vin laughed, “we have loads of those, how do you know it wasn’t just a portal to somewhere else in our own reality?”

“Because I looked into the stone and I could see the reality laid out like a book,” I said, “although it’s kind of just sitting there now.”

We all stared back at the unmoving stone. Hmmm, should I poke it. I reached out for it but Si stopped me. “Wait, what if it explodes again?”

“Well we have to figure out before King Sirhg gets here so we can actually do what we promised and heal the realm,” Evan said.

“Okay but I’ll touch it,” Arin volunteered, “let’s not get the queen blown up.”

“Should I go stand over there?” I deadpanned, pointing to the other side of the room.

Ayla put a shield up between us and I rolled my eyes but I secretly loved her shields, they smelled like the ocean.

Arin poked the rock and quickly backed up. But nothing happened, Si began to scribble in his notebook regardless. “Wow,” I sarcased, “impressive.”

I felt an unfamiliar magic wrap around my mind, prodding at it. I should’ve been panicked but instead, I felt peaceful.

A moment later, it was gone and I felt strangely alone.

I focused back on the task at hand, “okay, you can all touch it and if it doesn’t do anything than I get to poke it.”

They all agreed. Vin tapped it, Ayla knocked on it, Evan shook it - much to everyone's panic- and Si refused to touch it.

I shrugged, “okay then,” I leaned forward and they all leaned with me. I rolled my eyes before placing my hand gently on the side.

It began to glow softly underneath my hand and warmth rushed through me. I gasped in surprise, “it’s working!” I squealed.

The magic swirled inside of me and I felt like I could do something. “Quick!” I shouted out, “get me something dead!”

“I’m dead on the inside,” Ayla muttered next to me as Si pulled open the window and snapped off a frozen tree branch.

I touched it, knowing instinctively what to do and the branch blossomed before my very eyes, even growing roots at one end of the previously dead branch.

“This is fascinating,” Si said, scribbling it all down. I knew he was overly excited to study the Eternity Stone. He was the only Singer in all of history that might get the chance.

“I’m going outside,” everyone grabbed their coats but I didn’t need it. I stepped outside into my private courtyard and my magic began to heal everything around me. I watched as my own private bubble of summer blossomed.

I concentrated, forcing the bubble to widen until the entire castle was a summer haven. My forehead beaded with sweat and I felt strangely hot. I felt a prick in the crook of my elbow, like someone was drawing blood but there was nothing there.

The feeling vanished and I spent the rest of the day using the stone to bring back life. By the evening, the capitol city was back to where it had been one hundred years ago.

The Eternity Stone was kept under heavy guards by my knights for the night while I slept and I didn’t worry, I trusted them completely.

I dreamed a strange dream, in the dream I had been the one to fall through the wormhole into another dimension and the stone had been shattered and useless.

I dreamed of a man with green eyes and long black hair. He was handsome and I felt his magic twist around me again, the one from before. Who was he?

“Kai?” He mouthed but I couldn’t hear his words.

“I can’t hear you,” I replied. I felt a shoot of pain and was pulled from my sleep, sitting up in bed to find that it was morning.

It had been a week since we had found the Eternity stone and I had transformed the entire countryside back to its former glory. I was sure it would help with the negotiations.

King Sirhg was the leader of the Silenes and Vins brother. After Vin killed her own father and ran to our kingdom, he was set on killing her for it.

Vin had begged me to come to the summit but I didn’t want to agitate King Sirhg and ruin the peace treaty.

We met on the edge of the city, the King having brought a ridiculous number of people in his party.

“Queen Kaieadea,” he gave a slight bow. “I see you have discovered the Eternity Stone. Have you come to ask for my surrender?”

“No,” I said, and King Sirhg looked surprised. “I’ve come to barter peace and stop the war. Enough people have died.”

I placed the stone on the table, “in exchange for peace, I will heal the entire realm.”

After several hours, all the negotiations were finished.

I spent the next few months traveling the world, healing everything I touched.

My knights came with me and I was so glad they were here with me.

Although, I couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. I was still plagued with dreams of the black haired man and other people I knew I should be able to identify.

 

***

Loki

 

Arin and I had raided Kais vaults, using my magic to disguise us and the stone from sight.

When Kai came down the stairs, all she found was an empty room but we were still there.

I saw the panic flash across her face as she stepped another step into the room and triggered the trap Arin had laid for her.

Now, Kai sat in the middle of a rune circle, the unknown symbols foreign to me. Her eyes flutter back and forth as if she was dreaming and she occasionally twitched. I reached out for her mind and could feel her magic.

“What are you doing to her?” I asked Arin as he worked to break down the spells around the Eternity Stone.

“I put her in a trance, she’s dreaming of home,” Arin said and I reached out for her mind again, curious to see what her home looked like.

I managed to get on the edge of her shields and press into her mind. I saw a hazy vision of Kai wearing a crown, sitting on a throne and holding court. Another image flashed of her laughing among five friends, one of them Arin.

“Don’t do that.” Arin said, cutting off my concentration and stopping the vision. “If she senses your magic, she might be able to break out.”

I got to my feet, moving away from Kai. “Are you simply going to leave her like that?”

Arin shrugged, “pretty much. It’s better than torturing her. She dreams of going home so much that this is a mercy for her. And she won’t fight it because she wants it to be true so badly.”

I studied Kai, “well, that is her weakness. Hope.”

Arin nodded, pulling out several pages from his pocket, they were very old. He studied them for a minute and then said a quick incantation. The spell around the stone faded and Arin picked it up carefully.

“Now, once we combine it with this stone, we can try and use it,” Arin combined the large price he had to Kais price and it glowed brightly. “Perfect.” He placed the papers down on the table, carefully putting the stone in his bag.

I glanced at the papers, reading the words on them. It was from one of Odin's books although it appeared to have been torn from it.

Several words caught my interest and a new plan began to form in my head as I read the information on the page.

It appears my plans had changed.

I searched outwards with my magic, several things were still concealed in the room and if there was time, I was sure I could discover what they were but I needed to get ahold of the stone.

And kill Arin.

He didn’t have magic so I thought it would be easy to simply reach into his head and snap his sanity but his shields were greater than even Kais.

Arins head whipped up from where he was taking blood from Kais arm, and he growled, “what are you doing?”

“Sorry, nothing personal,” I said, stabbing him in the side with the dagger.

I grabbed for the stone but Arin ripped it away, he shouted an incantation, grabbed the papers and vanished into thin air.

Good.

I cast my magic about the room, there were several things hidden. I picked one at random and began to undo the spell. I discovered the book Kai had stolen from Odin’s private library years ago.

I flipped through it, there was a brief history of her people. And missing pages.

I now knew the information those pages contained. And now I needed to stop Arin from using the stone unless I wanted to doom the entire universe.

And since I lived here and would be helpless to stop the destruction, I decided it would be in my best interest to stop Arin.

I knew I would have to hunt Arin down. I could sense the Eternity Stone now that Kais concealment spell had been undone but I would need someone who could fight Arin and match him, even with the stone.

I’d need someone who could use the stone after I killed Arin and then someone who could take it from this realm.

I guess I wasn’t getting rid of Kai that easily.

 

***

Kai

 

Now that peace had been assured, everyone was trying to adjust to their lives without war.

Suddenly, we had more free time on our hands. The world was restored and my knights were no longer needed.

The six of us would always be friends but we all had our duties. Ayla went back to the ocean, her only love and went back to sailing the world and plundering far away kingdoms.

Evan and Vin returned to their palace to govern the Northern kingdom and the Seven Cities.

Arin and Si stayed with me.

I missed them but our seperation meant we had truly found peace.

I was still being plagued by the visions of the black haired man. My dreams were more vivid, I dreamed of him being locked in a cell aboard a floating ship, I dreamed of us dancing on a plane and I dreamed of us fighting on a rooftop.

I still couldn’t hear him in my dreams although I now longed to hear his voice.

The more I longed to hear his voice, the stranger my days became. I began to notice things moving in and out of focus, I would touch things and not be able to feel them. Sometimes if   
I closed my eyes and concentrated, it felt like I was lying on a stone floor.

I pretended not to notice, I celebrated our peace, I celebrated Vin and Evans marriage, I reveled with my people.

But the more I denied it, the more I saw the piercing green eyes of the man who plagued me.

He still tried to talk to me, saying my name over and over but I refused to hear him.

I knew the moment I heard the voice of my mate, I wouldn’t be able to hold onto this reality.

His voice eventually came to me anyways while I dreamed, “Kai!”

My eyes flew open but instead of being at my room at home, I was lying on the stone cold floor of my vault.

I gasped for air, sitting up, realizing I was in the middle of a Reverend Curse Circle.

It hadn’t been real. My friends were dead and war still raged. My sadness was unmatched and I wanted to curl up in a ball and forget this had ever happened. I wanted to go back.

“Kai!” I glanced over to see Loki on the floor, a dagger in his side.

I switched to combat mode, scanning my vault for threats. No one was there but me and him.

“Loki,” I scrambled to his side. “What happened?” I yanked the dagger from his side and he grunted.

“Arin attacked me,” he explained as he began to heal himself. “You magic felt suppressed so I came to see what was wrong, I tracked you here and he attacked me and escaped with the stone.”

My anger solidified, “I knew something was wrong but I didn’t think he’d attack me. Or steal the stone.” At Loki’s confused look I gave him a quick explanation on the stone. “It’s the thing you sometimes sense me carrying, I shattered it and am trying to reassemble it.” I grabbed his hand, pulling him to his feet. “Come on, we have to stop him.”

“He’s gone,” Loki said with an assurity. “He is using strange magic. I doubt we will be able to track him.”

I swallowed thickly, touching the faded runes on the floor. “Reverend magic,” I said softly, “this magic is forbidden. Arin is no longer the person I knew. He has killed my friends and he plans to unleash a terror that will destroy my realm.”

Loki put a hand on my shoulder and I was grateful for his touch, “I’m sorry Kai. He told me the visions he plagued you with.”

I glanced away from his eyes. “I saw a peace. A peace that I fear I will never have again.”

“We can bring your people peace once we stop Arin,” Loki assured me.

I nodded, “come on, let’s get going.”

I waved my hands and the items in the vault vanished, moving to another one of my safe houses. The spells stayed in tact and I would add more later at the new location.

I stepped outside and held out my hand, Loki took it and I shadow travelled us to the quinjet.

I could feel Loki’s worry but I pushed it down. I was too tired to try and hide my emotions from him. I was angry that Arin had lied to me but overall I was exhausted, I didn’t want to keep fighting. I just wanted peace. I just wanted my family back. I just wanted to hear their voices again and feel safe again.

We landed in the quinjet but Loki didn’t let go of my hand, instead he pulled me into a hug. “I’m sorry you lost them and I’m sorry Arin made you relive it.” I felt a wave of guilt from him, “if only I had gotten their sooner.”

I pulled away, “come on, we need to hunt Arin down. I have a theory that you can sense the stone, can you tell me where to go?”

Loki closed his eyes, concentrating. “I’ve never done this before,” he lied, scrunching up his eyebrows, “but I think that way?” He pointed north.

I nodded, started up the jet and took off. Loki took the seat next to me, “I saw a little part of your vision,” he confessed, “you’re a queen.”

I nodded in confirmation and he continued, “I also saw five people with you. One was Arin, who were the others?”

I hesitated, debating on my answer. Loki seemed to take my silence as a ‘no’ and turned to look out the windows at the world flying by.

“The fair haired one was Vinleigh,” I began and he turned with his eyebrows raised. “Vin was a princess of the Silene race, our sworn enemies. Her father tried to assault her mother and her sisters so Vin killed him and fled. Her brother took the throne and hunted her to my borders. I offered her a place as my knight and she willingly gave me information.”

“The jumpy one with the glasses is Si,” I continued as we flew. It felt good to talk about them although I missed them. Even Bucky didn’t know about them. “He was the eldest son of a lord but was uninterested in weapons and politics. His father sent him to the palace guard to toughen him up. I saved him from a particularly brutal beating and made him my strategist and my scientist, since he would rather hold a book than a sword.”

“The one with the eye patch is Lynnayla. She’s the most feared pirate of all time. She saved me from drowning and I offered her a place at my side. Ayla stayed for a while but her one true love is the sea, she only comes when I need her the most. When everyone else is dead and I need someone quiet as a shadow to finish whatever job I have.”  
“How did she lose her eye?” Loki asked, honestly curious.

I smirked, “she didn’t, she wears it for fun.” Loki laughed at that.

“Evanee is the newest to join my company,” I began, “she was once a top general in the northern kingdom. We seized their seven cities, intent on forcing them to join our kingdom and her city was the only city that defeated us. I offered Evan the stewardship over the entire northern kingdom and she and Vin rule there, almost unopposed.”

“How did you meet Arin?” Loki asked.

“I found him outside covered in mud, a child with no powers. I promised I’d make sure he didn’t need his powers to defeat his enemies.” I fumed, “and now he goes running to the Reverends for a small piece of their power.”

I banked the plane too hard to the right in my anger and Loki almost fell from his chair. “Sorry,” I apologized.

Loki righted himself, stretching out his long legs. “Thank you, for telling me about your past. It helps me understand you better.”

I frowned, “I didn’t tell you anything about my past at all. I didn’t even talk about myself.”

Loki smiled, “you said more about yourself than you realize.”

“Like what?” I asked, curious.

“You’re aware of the needs of others, you care about your people, you out people in places where they can preform at their full potential and you see power in places where other people forget to look,” he said. “All qualities of a good ruler.”

I turned to look at him, unsure how to feel about his careful analyzation of everything I had said. As I stared at him, I realized how good of a friend he had become to me.

“What?” Loki asked.

I shook my head, “you’re a good friend Loki. Sometimes this bond isn’t such a bad thing.”

“Oh it’s never a bad thing,” Loki purred, “especially when I do something like this.” He took my hand and kissed the back of it.

I couldn’t stop my heart from jumping and he grinned lazily at me, “I can feel your heartbeat jumping,” he pressed a hand to his chest, “right here next to mine.”

I pulled my hand back, “and sometimes the bond is the most annoying thing in the world,” I focused back on flying.

Loki chuckled, relaxing in his chair. We flew in comfortable silence for a while until Loki sat forward, “something’s happening.”

“What do you mean?”

Loki pointed out the windshield, “Arin is trying to do something with the stone.”

“Like What?” I squinted out the windshield. I couldn’t see anything.

A bright pink light shot upwards, carving a hole in the sky and opening a portal.

“Oh shit!” I shouted, banking to the left to avoid it.

The radio in the ship cackled to life, “hey Kai we got some strange readings near you can you check them out?” Tony’s voice came over.

“Yep, I’m way ahead of you!” I shouted back, “we might need some backup.”

An explosion rocked the side of the ship, “hang on!” I shouted to Loki as we careened towards the ground.

I grabbed his arm and shadow travelled us out of the wreckage, onto the dessert sand below us.

“Look out!” Loki plowed into me, sending us careening down the sand dune as the ship crashed on the top of it.

He rolled off of me, “are you okay?”

I spit sand from my mouth, “well, there goes our surprise attack.”

Arin was standing in the middle of half buried runes, a pink shield was around him, protecting him and the Eternity Stone from harm.

“Where do you think that portal leads?” Loki asked but I think we both knew.

“Home,” I said thickly.

A dark cloud billowed out from the center of the portal and I realized they were giant bats, war bats bread by the Silenes that rode them into battle. They flew down towards the portal but fifty percent of them were chopped into pieces.

Black shadows of monsters continued to escape into the sky but it appeared that nothing could get back through once it had crossed. Hopefully that changed once we got the rest of the stone put together.

“That’s bad,” I said.

“It’s getting worse,” Loki said, drawing his knife. I glanced to where Arin was, the Eternity Stone was still missing a small chunk. It was sending off heat waves and sparking. That’s probably why the big things coming through were getting destroyed.

“He should’ve waited to do that when he had the full stone!” I shouted as the wind picked up and blew sand up around us. “This might make it explode again.”

“Norns, it better not. I have no desire to hunt down shards of it.”

I felt Steve nearby as well as Bucky and a few other Avengers. “Loki, the others are coming!”

He nodded and faded away but I still sensed him nearby.

I began to fight my way through the storm, trying to reach Arin. The Eternity Stone was too frail to attempt going home.

I heard a screeching sound from above to see a giant eagle getting torn to shreds. Not a lot was going to make it through the portal.

Arin seemed to realize that as well because he stopped chanting and the stone went dark, the wind died and the portal began to close.

“Arin!” I raced towards him. “Stop this madness! We can collect the shards together and get home together!”

Arin turned to face me, a mad light in his eyes. “I can’t do that Kai! You’re a traitor, you took the stone and brought it to another world. You’ve doomed everyone to a slow death.”

“I didn’t do it on purpose!” I shouted back, the shield came down and I raced towards him, my hand near my dagger in case I needed it.

A spell blew my backwards across the ground. “Don’t make me kill you Kai, we might still need you alive.” He began to draw runes on his arm, chanting. What the hell was he doing?

“What do you mean?” I pulled my dagger free, ready to fight him for the stone. “Whose ‘we’?”

Arin smiled, “you’ll see, one day we’ll make you all see.” He slashed his hands across his runes and began to vanish.

I turned myself into shadows, launching at his shadow traveling form. I could see his form moving, wrapped in shadows.

I tackled him and we fought, our blades slashing back and forth so quick, shadow traveling in and out of focus as we blasted across the sand dunes.

The other Avengers arrived, but by then the threat was simply Arin and the stone he had in his other hand.

Arin threw a knife at me but it missed although it slammed into someone behind me. I felt Loki’s all consuming rage and realized he had hit Peter.

I felt Loki moving to assist Peter so I focused on Arin instead. He seemed annoyed his knife trick hadn’t worked.

A thing from the sand dunes leaped out at the other Avengers. A sand shark from my world.

Okay, maybe some things had gotten through. That made me all the more nervous.

Arin shouted an incantation and a rune blazed up in front of me. I didn’t recognize it but a moment later I was being blasted backwards.

When I managed to wipe the sand from my eyes, Arin was gone.

I turned to Peter to find him completely healed and Loki gone. Peter turned to me, “what happened?”

“You got knocked down by the blast,” I supplied helpfully and he nodded.

“Right, I remember now,” Peter nodded getting to his feet. I didn’t feel any guilt about erasing Loki from his memories. Better to keep him safe.

The sand shark was killed quickly. “What the hell was that?” Bucky asked. “Is that normal?”

“It’s a sand shark,” I explained, “it’s from my world.” They all blinked at me in surprise, “Arin tried to open a portal back to my reality and it malfunctioned. We didn’t get through but some stuff got out.”

“Like what kind of stuff?” Steve asked wearily.

I shrugged, “honestly, anything.”

“Oh well that’s just brilliant,” Tony said, “also does anyone else want to know what the glowing pink Tesseract looking thing was? Because I do!”

I gave a tiny laugh, mostly out of nerves. “It’s called the Eternity Stone, it’s just as powerful as the Infinity Stones and it’s from my home world. I shattered it when I first landed here and have been assembling it since the forties.”

“Did you know about this?” Tony asked Steve.

“I did,” Steve confirmed.

“So you’ve been lying to us?” Tony asked.

I crossed the sand, studying the ruins that Arin had been standing on. What was so special about these? “Not necessarily lying,” I said, “more like withholding information.”

“That’s the same thing,” Bucky supplied.

“Shut up Buck, you’re the one who told Steve first,” I said although in a teasing tone.

“Do all the senior citizens know?” Tony asked, “what does that stone do? Why does Arin have it?”

“He stole it from me and plans to use it to go back home and awaken a beast that will destroy all of my people.”

“Wait,” Nat held up her hands, “back up. I thought you and Arin were best friends.”

“Yeah, I thought so too,” I said bitterly. “But apparently he’s now a genocidal maniac whose killed my family and is now hell bent on killing me and his entire race.”

Silence greeted my words. “So, why didn’t it work?” Clint finally asked, “if he had the stone why didn’t he go through the portal and go home.”

“The Stone wasn’t fully completed,” I reasoned, “Arin lacks patience, it was the one thing I couldn’t teach him. He did not wait until the Stone was fully assembled to try and use it.”

“So that’s good?” Clint asked, “I mean he doesn’t want to hurt anyone on Earth and can’t get back to your planet so we know his next play.”

“We’re going to have to find the remaining shards before he does.” I said.

“How much more does he have to go?” Nat asked.

I held up my hands, making a circle with my thumb and pointer finger. “About this much is missing.”

“That’s not a lot,” Steve said, “we’d better get started.”

“If we can gather all the remaining shards before he does he’ll have to come to us to get the rest back.” I strategized.

“How are we going to do that?” Bucky asked, “I thought you didn’t have a way to sense them.”

I shifted, “no, but I know something that might.”

“What?” Nat asked.

I frowned, “we’ll have to see if Odin is willing to give it up,” I said before shadow traveling farther into the desert. “Scourge!” I shouted out and a few minutes of shouting into the air, Scourge shadow traveled me to Asgard.

“I’m here to see the king,” I said, spreading my wings so I could fly to the palace.

“No, I’m supposed to announce your arrival,” Scourge said but I took off before he could finish his sentence.

I flew through Asgard, still distracted by the beauty of it and landed outside the throne room.

The doors opened and I entered to find Odin lounging on his throne. I didn’t bother to bow as I approached the throne. “Your majesty,” I said.

“Why have you returned to Asgard?” Odin barked. “You have no reason to be here.”

“I request a private audience with the king,” I said. We need to talk, I said to Loki in my head.

“I will speak to the lady alone,” Odin called out and the guards and nobles who were hanging around curiously, left the hall.

Once everyone was gone, I felt Loki’s magic surround us. I knew whoever might still be watching us would only see Odin and I talking.

Odin’s hologram faded until I was once again looking at Loki. He lounged on the throne, comfortable in the seat, as if he was born to sit there.

“Why have you come?”

“I want the Tesseract,” I said, “I think it can track the shards and I need to find them.”

“No.”

“Come on,” I protested, “I want to go home and I know you want me gone too, so why not help me?”

“Because giving you the Tesseract would be like handing over the keys to my kingdom. If you can’t use it to track the shards, you would be holding a bargaining chip that anyone would kill for. I’m not inclined to give someone who already has an overbalance of power, even more power.”

“Are you scared of me?” I smirked, moving up the steps of the throne.

“Terrified,” Loki purred, leaning forwards. “If you weren’t so set on getting home, I might just make you my queen. No one would ever defy Asgard again with both of us leading.”

I cocked an eyebrow, “do you really think I’m that ambitious?” I put my hands on either side of his seat and leaned closer.

“I think you’re simply waiting for the perfect chance to strike,” Loki whispered, his hand came up to cup my face. I closed my eyes, his lips barely grazed mine.

His hand tightened on my waist and I caught my breath, I leaned forward. Loki pulled back, although I could feel how much it cost him to do so, “I’m not going to give you the Tesseract, not even your advances can change my mind.”

I smirked, “are you sure about that?” I ran my fingers through his hair and felt him shiver.

“I’m sure,” Loki swallowed. “Now, leave Asgard. You have no reason to return.”

I wanted to convince him to give me the Tesseract but I doubted he would give in. It was pointless to waste time here. I turned my body into shadows, flashing to the bifrost gate and shocking Scourge who dropped the mop he was holding.

“Send me back to Earth,” I demanded, a little pissed that Loki wasn’t helping me to get home.

Scourge obeyed, sending me back to the Compound.

I arrived where everyone was expecting me. “Looks like we’re on our own,” I said.

“What did you try and get?” Bucky asked.

“The Tesseract,” I sulked, “King Odin was not willing to part with it. Especially since Thor is beyond his reach.”

“That’s a pretty ballsy move,” Sam said. “I would be too scared to ask him for it.”

“Yeah well, I have half a mind to go back and steal it.”

“You should’ve stolen it first,” Natasha pointed out, “I assume he’ll increase security on it.”

“I know,” I sighed, “I thought I could bargain with him but apparently, he doesn’t like to bargain with me.”

“Well, we’d better come up with another idea. And quickly,” Steve said, “every minute we waste is another minute Arin is closer to finding the rest of the shards.”

“Steve gave us a rundown on everything while you were gone,” Tony supplied. “Why didn’t you come to us before?” H

I gave Steve a look, “because the more people who know about it, the more people could get hurt from it.”

“We’re trying to help Kai,” Steve said. “Nothing more. Besides, if we put together the stone, we can open a portal to your reality.”

I nodded, “and then I can save my people.”

“But,” Peter spoke up, “you won’t ever come back?”

I sighed, “no. I won’t.”

“Oh,” Peter cleared his throat, “okay then.”

There was silence for a second, “okay,” Steve said, rallying the team. “We’re going to hook up Kai’s algorithm to FRIDAY, we’ll be able to cover more ground that way. We need to find the shards before Arin does.”

“I’ve already found three,” Peter spoke up, “so it shouldn’t be that hard.”

 

***

 

It was much harder than we had first thought.

It was like all the shards had simply dropped off of the face of the Earth. Had Arin already managed to find all of them.

Tony and Bruce had combined their genius brains to discover a way to hunt the low level gamma radiation the shards were giving off. Of course, it wasn’t perfect and didn’t have world wide range but it was still helpful.

It was late, and most of the team was asleep when I finally got a hit.

Tony, Bucky and I were the ones in the lab. Bucky was knitting in the corner, Tony was tinkering with something and I was making pictures with my magic.

The alert shocked us all in the silence. “FRIDAY, whatcha got?” Tony asked.

“A shard has been located,” a map appeared on the screen and I squinted at it. I frowned, the shard appeared to be right on top of us.

“What the f-,” Bucky began but the giant window behind him shattered and a huge Leukat came hurtling through the window.

It clamped down on his metal arm and Bucky let out a scream.

“FRIDAY!” Tony shouted as his suit assembled around him. “Sound the alarm.”

I morphed my lounge clothes into the suit Tony had made for me and launched myself at the Leukat.

The other Avengers came running in, in various stages of pajama attire just as I pried the jaws off of Bucky.

“What the hell is that thing?” Clint shouted, firing an arrow at it. Silver blood ran down its flank. It roared and bit the arrow from its side, cracking it in its jaws.

“A Leukat!” I shouted back, “it’s from my own world and it has a piece of the shard!”

“Where?” Natasha said, cocking her gun.

I looked for the glow. “There!” Clint pointed to the tiny glowing shard half embedded in its mouth. He aimed an arrow but the dog caught it in its mouth, snapping it.

Natasha distracted it by firing bullets while Steve and I raced forward to get the shard. Bucky has grabbed a knife from his belt and was dancing around it, slicing and dicing at its legs.  
Steve threw his shield, lodging it in the creates throat and keeping it from biting down fully. I dug my arm into the slimy mouth and managed to yank out the shard, one of its teeth was imbedded in my arm.

The Leukat whimpered and backed off. It grew smaller now that it was missing a shard and lost the rage it had been attacking us with. With a quick shot, Clint killed it.

The red tinged eyes faded back to its normal silver color as the beast died. I stood above it, wondering how it had survived the trip over.

“I’m assuming that’s another one of the creatures from Kais world,” Bucky said.

I yanked the tooth from my forearm, “it shouldn’t be here,” I said.

“Did anyone else get the sense that it came specifically to attack us?” Natasha asked.

I nodded, “it’s very strange.” I held up the shard in my hand, “at least I got the shard.” It was a tiny price, barely even a sliver.

Something about this scene was bothering me, something to do with the red rimmed eyes of the beast. I had faced something like this before and it was nagging at the back of my head.

I didn’t sleep that night, on edge, trying to remember what I had forgotten.

 

***

Arin

 

“The attack on the base has been a success,” the scaly voice said. I crouched, hidden from their eyes, trying to determine what monsters had come through the portal. “The Viewing Spell worked, giving us a glimpse of the Avengers strength through the eyes of the mutated Leukat.”

“The queen is alive,” one of the Silenes hissed. “And she’s with the Avengers.”

“She’s simply another obstacle to cross off the list.” The leader replied, “once we have exterminates the avengers we can move forward with our plans.”

“That was the only shard we had,” another protested.

I listened to the conversation from the rafters, interested in learning who the newcomers to the planet were. I hadn’t meant to summon anyone but the Reverend Order but it appeared a group of radicals had come through instead.

Each of the Silenes below him had a red sparrow sewn into their jackets and I realized who they were.

The Red Sparrow was an elite group of Terrorists who believed that the best way to restore balance to their dying world was not through finding the Eternity Stone but by finding new realities and conquering them.

It appeared that I had let them into this world and they were planning on taking over Earth and beginning a new world over.

I would have to decide what to do about them. Join them or kill them.

After another day I had made my decision. “Brothers!” I revealed myself from the shadows, putting them all on edge. I held up a piece of the Eternity Stone, “I offer you these shards as a gift.” I threw the piece to the leader. “These shards from the stone will give your beasts greater power and make you stronger than any other Silene. With these, you can defeat the Avengers.”

“You are Vollarin!” The leader, Fei, replied. “Advisor to the queen. Why would you help us?”

“I am sure you’ve heard of my deeds these past seventy years,” I smirked, “my only request is this: that after you are finished killing all of the Avengers, you bring Kai to me; alive. I want to dispose of her myself.”

Fei seemed to consider it. He signaled with his hands and the other men dropped their weapons. “This war has bored me for long enough, it was time for something interesting to happen.” He grinned at me, “consider it done. Once we have disposed of the threats to our conquest, we will return the queen and the remainder of this stone to you.”

 

***

Loki

 

I had gone too far.

The brief feeling I had gotten of Kai’s lips had been enough to undo me. I had done it to unnerve her but instead it appeared that I was the one affected by it.

Her image plagued me for the rest of the day, interfering with my duties as King of Asgard. I dreamed about finally kissing her, holding her and touching her.

I needed to get rid of her, and quickly, because the next time we were alone I didn’t know if I would be able to keep myself from exploring her lips with my own.

The original plan had been to send her home with Arin but due to recent developments, I had chosen a more neutral side in this alteration. Which meant I was down to my last idea, a more… permanent fate for Kai.

I went to my vault, dismantling the spells as I went and pulled out a shard of metal, one that I hadn’t seen in almost two years.

A shard from Malekith’s sword. Kais only weakness.

It appeared I was in need of a blacksmith.

Ser Sigyne was the best one around and I quickly called him into an audience with King Odin.

“My King," he bowed, “how can I be of service?”

“I am in need of a weapon,” I began, “one that contains this shard,” I handed him the metal. “The dagger needs to be strong enough to pierce the heart but weak enough to break off inside, leaving this shard inside the body.”

Ser Sigyne nodded, “it will be done Your Majesty.”

I placed a cunning spell over Ser Sigyne. One that would make him forget he was building the weapon unless he was talking to me specifically. If anyone else tried to talk to him, he would be unable to tell them about the weapon.

Ser Sigyne brought the dagger to me three days later. It was beautifully crafted, with a golden hint and a shining silver blade. The ugly black metal from Malekith's sword was fixed to the end, it seemed to vibrate; it appeared the sword didn’t like being put on another blade.

It would do perfectly.

“If you don’t mind me asking King Odin,” Ser Sigyne said and I sighed. Here we go. “What are you planning on using it for? That metal is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.”

I smiled, turning to Sigyne. “It’s a gift, for someone special.” I replied before driving a different dagger through his heart.

I left the carcass there to be cleaned up by my guards. As for the newly fashioned dagger, I placed it in a spelled box.

Kai could sense the metal when it was near her, once I discovered a way to block the magic of the blade, I would be able to use it to dispose of her for good.

I swallowed back my hesitation. Kai was in my way and if she couldn’t find a way to get home, then I would take matters into my own hands.


	2. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Kai

 

The attack had left all of us unnerved, Tony increased security around the perimeter and the rest of us took turns on patrol.

“It chewed through the wires for the motion sensor alarm,” Tony explained, “that’s how it avoided us noticing it.”

“What about the guards?” Peter asked, luckily he had been in Manhattan for the entire event and hadn’t been in danger.

“You don’t wanna know what it did with the guards.” Sam replied.

A meeting had been called this morning of all the Avengers who were living in the Compound. Right now it was me, Steve, Bucky, Natasha, Clint, Tony, Bruce, Wanda, Sam, Peter and Vision.

Although, we were always coming and going. Peter was only up here on weekends and twice a week after school, Sam rotated between being here and working in DC. No one really knew what Clint and Natasha got up too but they were always vanishing. Wanda and Vision were out exploring the world on their off days. And Thor and Strange were out of country - or, in Thor's case, out of planet.

“FRIDAY hasn’t located any shards since the attack,” Bruce explained, “Tony and I are working to expand her scanning range.”

“Once we find a shard, we’ll need to get it before Arin does,” I said.

“Do you think the shard inside that dogs mouth was a coincidence?” Bucky asked me.

I shook my head, “I don’t know. Arin could’ve planted the shard inside the beasts mouth and sent it after us but that thing was rabid, there’s no way Arin could’ve been controlling it.”

“We still need to keep our guard up,” Clint said, “we might get attacked again.”

I turned to Vision. I had given him the shard of the stone last night too see if the Mind Stone in his head could track down the other shards. “Vis, did you have any luck?”

He shook his head, “I’m afraid I cannot locate the other shards Miss. Kai. We will have to find them some other way.”

“It’s alright,” I sighed, “it was a long shot anyways.”

“We just need to keep our eyes open,” Steve said.

I nodded, “we need to be on the lookout for threats. They could come at any-,” I trailed off. Once the Leukat has attacked us I had put up a mental shield around the place with Wanda’s help. No one could enter or leave the property without one of us knowing about it.

I had stopped talking because something familiar had moved onto the compound. It was as if someone has removed a puzzle piece from a completed puzzle, leaving an empty hole that needed to be filled in.

“I feel it too,” Wanda spoke up in the sudden silence. “What is it? It is not a normal mind.”

“It’s a Soul Singer,” I bit out. “A Silene. My people’s sworn enemies.”

“What are they doing here?” Bucky asked.

I shook my head, “someone must have gotten through. And now they’re here to kill me.”

Natasha cocked her gun, “This should be easy.”

“Kid, go home,” Tony said to Peter.

Peter was already in his suit, “no way am I missing this Mr. Stark!”

I had to admire the kids loyalty.

“How many do you sense?” Wanda asked me.

“One but I doubt it’s the only one. They’re probably moving in a group to limit the amount of people on our radar. I’ve seen them do it before.” In fact they were moving in an attack pattern that was very similar to a group of Terrorists I had taken down years ago with my knights.

“Stay sharp,” Steve said as we spread out around the Compound.

Wanda and I stayed together, reaching out with our mental powers. We both recognized the threat at the same time.

A group of eight Silene’s had begun to spread out around the Compound, moving silently. They didn’t have any runes etched onto their skin so I assumed none of them were Reverends. Which was good because Reverends were vastly superior in combat.

“There’s eight of them,” I said over the radio. “They’re spreading out over the Compound.”

*Ready?* Wanda asked me and I nodded. She flexed her fingers and we both flipped into battle, taking on the four that were around us.

I launched into the battle, using my magic to fly and twist around their swords. The Silene’s were equally matched to the Singers in strength, speed and magic so it was finally an even match for me.

I couldn’t help but wonder why only eight Silene’s had attacked the Avengers. Surely, they would’ve put more thought into the attack.

Just as I thought that, a terrifying shriek sounded from behind me and my blood ran cold. I knew exactly what that sound meant.

I turned to see a NayWyrm’s thud to the ground, causing a tremor to sweep over the base. Two more landed next to it, all of them releasing a roar that almost defeated me.

NayWyrm’s were ghastly beasts were each twelve feet tall with razor sharp tusks, hard beaks and curving horns. They walked like gorillas, with four pairs of arms that were covered in long curved nails reinforced with armour. Their eyes were small and they relied on their sense of smell through scent glands that covered it’s entire back like a Komodo dragons elaborate headdress.

If these beasts weren’t terrifying enough, they also each had a shard of the Eternity Stone lodged in their skull, reinforcing their armour and adding muscle to their bodies.

“Are you guys seeing what’s outside?” Peter shouted into the earpiece.

I broke out of my shock as one of the Silene’s swept his long double bladed axe at me, knocking me backwards into Wanda and sending us sprawling.

The NayWyrm’s split off, human like intelligence gleaming in their eyes from the enlightenment the Eternity Stone brought and began to plow through the Compound, picking Avengers out of the wreckage.

I heard shouting as they new foes joined the fight but I was focused on the four Silene’s that had surrounded us.

Wanda and I got to our feet, back to back. Waiting to see who would make the first move.

Wanda struck out with her powers, knocking one to the ground as it was consumed with a vision, the other she sent flying backwards and I felt his mind snap as he went sailing through the glass. Two down, six to go.

I swept out with my two swords, crossing blades with the remaining two. I spun around, trying to find an opening but it had been a long time since I had crossed swords with two enemies at once.

One of their swords was yanked from their grasp and sailed into Wanda’s hand. I stabbed at him in his confusion and red Silene blood dotted my sword.

The other got in a good swipe and I barely dodged the blade, a tiny cut now adorning on my cheek. My silver blood dotted the ground and the Silene fighting me sneered at the sight.

“You filthy silver blood,” it spat at my feet, reading his sword.

I’m going to help the others, Wanda took off running from the Compound where the Naywyrms where still wrecking havoc in the confusion.

The Silene I was fighting was of a higher rank, I could tell from its leather jacket. Looks like me and my knights hadn’t disposed of the Red Sparrow like we had thought.

It was time to remind him of what I had done to his people. I let the white markings of my rank and heritage spiral out over my dark skin, my hair was still in it’s dreads but I conjured a silver tiara into the strands, my pointed ears twitched and I sneered at him with my silver eyes and fangs. I hadn’t let the illusion around myself fall in a long time.

The Silene didn’t appear to be afraid which was impressive since my markings alone usually sent people running...or bowing.

I let out a battle cry before charging at him, I wanted to keep him alive so I could question him later.

I swung out with whips made from moonlight, using them to disarm him and tie him up. I shattered his poorly constructed mental shields with a hand and wrapped around his mind to keep him still while I dealt with the Naywyrms.

The other Avengers were slicing at them but weren’t having much luck, the thick armour made it almost impossible to defeat.

A Naywyrms could be blinded by slicing off the headdress of scent glands. That would confuse them enough for someone to reach their weak spot between their horns.

I relayed that information over the radio as I ran. Vision, Wanda, Clint and Steve convered on one of them. Peter, Tony and Natasha converged on the other. The Hulk swung past, taking on the biggest one.

I moved to help Peter, Tony and Nat. Nat had climbed a teetering steel beam that one of the NayWyrm’s had destroyed and threw herself onto it’s back. She began to scale the beast while it tried to knock her off.

“Take out it’s legs!” I shouted to Peter and Tony and Peter immediately began to use his go to ‘Empire Strikes Back’ plan which was to wrap up the giants and bring them down.  
Tony distracted it so Natasha could climb up. I landed beside her on the beasts back just as she sliced off the headdress and I drove my sword downwards, the weak spot was a tiny thing and if you didn’t know the anatomy of these creatures well, you wouldn’t be able to find it.

I stopped my sword just shy of killing it when I realized the shard was imbedded inside the weak spot. I didn’t know what would’ve happened if I had hit that with my sword.

The NayWyrm roared and threw Natasha from it’s back. It reached for me but I yanked the shard from it’s head and drove my sword into it’s head. It shuddered and began to fall.

I rolled from it’s back as it thudded to the ground behind me, causing the ground to shake and more of the Compound to fall.

I heard a crunching sound and turned to see one of the NayWyrms had grabbed Tony from the sky. It threw him across the Compound, slamming him into Vision and knocking both of them from the sky.

I launched myself at the two remaining Naywyrms. The Hulk had succeeded in ripping the arms off of it but was having problems killing it. I ran upwards, pulling a tiny knife from my belt and stabbed it in the head before dodging the Hulk’s fist, grabbing the shard as I went.

The final one remained.

An arrow wizzed by me and pierced the weak spot, the shard fell to the ground, having protected the Naywyrm. The Naywyrm realized what had happened and manged to knock over the staircase Clint was using as a nest, crushing Peter and Steve underneath it.

I screamed before throwing my knife, distracting the Naywyrm. It turned to face me, its tusks snapping as it ripped apart a piece of Tony’s armour that it had pulled from him. I prayed he was okay.

I launched myself at the beast, intending to climb up it’s arm but it grabbed me, bringing it up to it’s mouth, I stabbed it in the hand and it dropped me. Great, now I was missing a sword.

I created clones of myself, running around it in it’s confusion. I spread my wings and dropped down on top of it, stabbing downwards between its horns, killing it.

I pulled my sword from the wreckage and then raced off to help the others. I reached out with my mind; Wanda was helping Vision and Tony. Tony had several broken ribs but he was alive.

Peter and Steve were both under the rubble but Steve had protected Clint with his shield and Peter was holding the bigger pieces up off of them. I helped shift the rubble, pulling them both out.

Clint was beaten around, Peter had a dislocated shoulder and Steve had a few cuts but they were alright. Bruce had shifted back and was helping Nat to her feet, she had a bleeding cut on her head from the NayWyrm throwing her backwards.

We all gathered around the living Silene, the three shards deep in my pocket. I snapped my fingers and the hallucination I put on the Silene faded and he blinked at all of us, surrounding him.

And it began to laugh. “Shut up!” I shouted, flicking my fingers and the laughter dissolved into screams of pain. I wasn’t actually hurting it, the pain was all inside the head but it was still incredibly effective.

I stopped a minute later, crouching down beside it. “Tell us why you did this and that won’t happen again.”

It smirked at us, “it appears that we can make Earth's Mightiest Heroes bleed.”

“Kai, find out why they’re here,” Steve ordered.

I rooted inside it’s head, learning all I needed in a couple of seconds. “His name is Fei and he’s a member of the Red Sparrow, a terrorist group from my home world. The majority of Singers and Silenes believe that salvation comes through the Eternity Stone but this group of radicals believes we should leave our old world behind and conquer a new one. They’re here to take your planet and begin a new race.”

“Well, they can’t,” Tony said, slightly out of breath from the pain in his ribs. “He has to get through us first.”

“Don’t worry,” Fei sneered, “we plan too.”

I reached out to find his plans but found what I was expecting, a wiped memory. “Damn it, these radicals are smart,” I said, “they wipe their own memories before an attack, I don’t know how many there are or where they’re located.” I reached inside his mind again, searching for anything useful.

I found pictures of my home world, a place that was almost dead, a place with a dead sun and ash for dirt. I was running out of time.

I winced as more images flashed through my mind, images of Vin, Evan, Ayla and Si, all battle hardened and exhausted. They looked hopeless.

“Are they alive?” I asked, praying they were and Arin had lied. The next few images I received from his mind proved that I was wrong, they were all dead. The Silene army had carted their bodies around like dolls to prove it.

That image alone caused a deep set rage to come over me. They had killed my best friends and carried their bodies around like trophies. I reached out with my powers, wrapping my mind around his, entering the fiber of his very being.

And then I ripped.

His scream echoed around the broken compound and cut off suddenly as his lifeless body thudded to the ground, blood dripping from every pore.

I heard gagging behind me and realized Peter was throwing up. “Peter!” I said, moving towards him, I put a hand on his shoulder but he waved me off, deathly pale. “I”m sorry, I shouldn’t have done that.”

“No,” I heard Steve say, “you shouldn’t have. We could’ve used him alive.”

I sneered, “we really couldn’t have. I got everything of importance from his mind. Now, he paid for his crimes and his body can be burned like the rest of them.”

I realized my silver eyes, white markings and silver tiara were still in place. I let them fade, adopting a more human appearance.

Tony began to assess the damages of the Compound with FRIDAYs help while the rest of us piled up the bodies. The Naywyrms were the hardest to move and we couldn’t move them without the help of all the super strength enhanced beings.

We lit a huge bonfire in the backyard, exhausted as we stared into the flames.

Clint brought out hot dogs, marshmallows and other things to make s'mores to try and lighten the mood and as he made food for everyone, I realized how starving I was.

We roasted food over the burning bodies which couldn’t be very healthy but the food tasted fine so I wasn’t too worried about it.

Once the fire was out we all packed into a quinjet and flew back to New York, planning on staying in Avengers Tower until the Compound was fixed. I spent the rest of the night up with Wanda and Vision, putting shields around the entire building, making sure only certain people could come and go. No one with hostile intentions could get passed the front door. I should’ve done this outside the Compound too, once it was fully repaired, I planned too.

I finished the spells in the early morning and after a shower to wash the silver blood off of me, I collapsed into bed.

I had only been sleeping for a few hours when Loki’s annoyance woke me up. *Wake up,* he commanded.

*You had better have an incredible reason for waking me up or else I will stab you.* I shot back. Where was he? He had to be close?

I cast my magic outwards, waking with a start when I realized he was in Asgard. And, we were talking telepathically.

That was a problem. It meant the bond was strengthening.

*Come to Asgard,* Loki said quickly and his magic faded from my mind.

I groaned, rolling over to check the time. I had only been asleep for an hour. I was gonna kill him for this.

I magicked on appropriate clothing, grabbed a cup of coffee and shadow travelled downtown before I called for Scourge and transported myself to Asgard.

I landed at the gate, yawning, still drinking my coffee. “What does Odin want this time?” I asked Scourge.

Lady Sif was at the gate, “I have a horse for you Lady Kai.”

I handed my coffee cup to Scourge before climbing on the horse and riding off for Asgard.

We hadn’t gone far before Sif began to speak, “Kai, you were with Loki on the day he died, correct?”’

“Yes,” I replied cautiously. “Why?”

Sif frowned, “Odin has been acting peculiar since then. He’s allowing border colonies to become independent, he’s retracted his armies, he’s...built several statues for his queen and his son Loki but none for Thor or himself. I find it odd.”

I forced myself to laugh, “you think Loki is Odin? Thats crazy!”

“I know but something is wrong,” Sif insisted.

I shrugged, “grief shows itself in interesting ways,” I needed to stop her from questioning Odin/Loki. Loki would most likely kill her and I actually liked Sif and didn’t want her to die. “Sif, I felt Loki die. I can feel his mind, just like I can feel everyone else’s. I felt his pain and I felt his death. He is not here… or anywhere.”

Sir sighed, “you’re right. I’m looking to place blame when I don’t need to be.” We arrived at the palace, “the King is waiting for you on his private terrace.”

She led me to the hallway that led to the terrace and then left me to find the room by myself. It appeared no one was allowed within a hundred feet of this place unless invited.

Loki was waiting for me, lounging on a couch, eating grapes. I had to admit, he was still sexy every time I saw him. I stood in the doorway admiring him.

“Like what you see?” Loki said, smirking at me although his eyes combed over me just as intently as mine studied him. It seemed he enjoyed his own view just as much as me.

I studied the terrace, it was filled with ornate furniture. Several seats, tables, food platters and a small collection of boxes in the corner. One of them seemed to be magical but it was too weak for me to care.

“You woke me up,” I said, feigning annoyance, moving farther into the room.

“I know,” Loki said with obvious glee.

I collapsed onto the couch across from him, “the Avengers Compound was attacked last night. I spent the entire night killing monsters, interrogating Silene’s and putting up shields around the Tower.”

“Silenes?” Loki said, genuine confusion came down the bond between us so I knew he had nothing to do with it. “Did some get through the portal?”

I nodded, sighing, “it appears they were waiting for it. An entire radical terrorist group got through and is determined to wipe out the Avengers.”

“Oh dear,” Loki said, not concerned in the slightest. “I assume you won?”

I smirked, “I always win.”

Loki rolled his eyes, shifting in his seat. “Well, I should get down to business before you start distracting me again like last time,” his eyes flickered to my mouth and I couldn’t help but wonder how his mouth would feel against mine. I had gotten a taste the other day and it had been driving me insane since. I had had dreams about him almost every night, although I would never admit it.

“Why am I here?” I said, snapping my gaze up, realizing I had been silently staring at his lips.

Loki leaned forward, waved his hand and one of the boxes on the table sailed over. He opened it, revealing a piece of the Eternity Stone. It was almost the exact size of the piece that was missing from the stone.

“From your shock I determine you hadn’t been expecting that,” Loki smirked. “I’ve been collecting them for quite some time,” he confessed, “of course, I didn’t know what it was, only that it was powerful.”

I shook my head, not surprised he had been collecting them. I realized he intended to give it to me, although I knew there would be a price. “I’m assuming you’re here to sell it to me.”

“You would assume correctly,” Loki waved his hand and the box vanished, to a place I doubted I could steal it from.

I leaned forwards as well, limiting the space between us. “Alright, what do you want for it?”

Loki pretended to ponder although I knew he already had his price picked out. “Hmm, how about the...Mind Stone?” He smirked.

My face didn’t betray my shock but I assumed he could feel it through the bond between us. Another annoying thing about it.

If I brought him the Mind Stone, I would have to kill Vision. Unless, I literally brought him the Mind Stone. I could just trick Vision into coming to Asgard and then my debt would theoretically be paid…

“I’ll let you think about it,” Loki said, getting to his feet and holding out a hand to help me up.

I reached for his hand, maybe a little too eagerly but I wanted to feel his skin on mine. The bond between us was getting impatient with our apparent denial of it’s godly will.

He pulled me to my feet and I realized I was standing close to him again, closer than I should allow myself too.

I switched gears from my fantasies to reality. I needed to make a decision about the Mind Stone.

Which was a higher priority? Mortals who would eventually die and who’s opinion would only matter until I could get home? Or a dying world filled with my own people who were counting on me that needed the fully completed stone.

“I don’t need to think on it,” I replied, “I’ll get you the Mind Stone. In exchange for the Eternity Stone.”

Loki smiled, “then it seems, my dear Kai, we’re back in business.” I shook his hand before pulling away, trying not to dwell on the fact that he’d call me his Kai. It meant nothing, I would be leaving soon.

He turned away from me, probably expecting me to leave but I called back out to him, “you know, I could use some help,” I stuttered, wondering what the hell I was doing. I did not need him as a distraction.

Loki turned back to me, more interested than he should be and I wondered if he was waiting for me to ask. “Oh?”

“I can’t hunt down the majority of the Eternity Stone and I won’t give you the Mind Stone unless I know I have the rest of the Eternity Stone. It might take me years to find the stone but with your help...it might go faster. Then we can both get what we want.” I wasn’t sure if I was making any sense.

Loki seemed to consider it and I prayed he would turn be down but also secretly hoped he say yes. It was a really terrible position to be in honestly.

“Why not?” He finally replied.

I nodded, “okay, well, I’m going to go now.”

“I’ll meet you in a few days time, somewhere discreet,” Loki replied. “You’ll know when I get to Midgard.”

I nodded, “okay.” I had said ‘okay,’ too many times. I dissolved into shadows, fleeing the room. I arrived at the bifrost and shot back down to Earth.

The bond between us didn’t stretch as far as it usually did and I could feel his mind more clearly than usual.

I decided to test how far it could go, wondering if earlier had simply been a one time thing. *Loki?* I sent outwards, wondering if he’d reply.

*Yes, darling?*  
My mouth twitched upwards into a smile. *I hate it when you call me that.* I lied.

 

*Sure, love.* He replied, his amusement clear in my mind.

*That’s worse.* I continued to lie, it was much better.

I could almost feel him rolling his eyes at my breathless lie.


	3. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

Loki

 

I hadn’t intended to work with Kai but her request was unavoidable. If she asked for something, I had half a mind to simply hand it to her. Luckily, I had held onto my sanity and hadn’t simply handed her the Tesseract earlier.

Once she left I wasn’t expecting to miss her presence on Asgard but I did.

My eyes strayed to the boxes that remained on the far table. I hadn’t needed all of them but if one box had been sitting out, the ploy might have been to obvious.

I opened one of the boxes, the Soul Eater Dagger winking up at me. I had etched runes into its handle and had decided to test the concealment spell.

Kai had been momentarily distracted by it but she hadn’t seemed to recognize it for what it was.

Which meant the dagger was ready, it was time to kill her. The very thought seemed to burn my soul.

*Loki?* Her voice echoed in my mind, I knew she was testing the new found strength in our bond.

Her voice was music to my ears, I would keep her up all night to hear my name on her lips. *Yes, darling?* I replied.

I felt her mixed emotions about being called ‘darling.’ It was like a warm fuzzy feeling in the pit of her stomach. *I hate it when you call me that,* she lied. I could feel her emotions easily enough now.

Fine, I guess I would tease her then. *Sure, love.* I sent it with a careful smirk although I knew my voice caught on the word, wondering how it would feel to call her that for real.

*That’s worse,* her reply was a little breathless and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. Maybe she forgot that we could feel each others emotions.

Another thing I needed to work on if I was going to kill her.

I shut my emotions off and felt the distance between us stretch once again. It appeared it was something we could control from this distance.

I put the dagger back in my vault, feeling sorrow about what I had to do. If only there was another way.

I paused, thinking.

If we really did succeed in collecting the stone, then she could go home, never to return. She would be as good as dead to this world.

I knew we hadn’t succeeded in the past but I was willing to give it one more shot. I gave myself a time limit, one month.

If she wasn’t home by then, a dagger through the heart it would be.

 

***

Kai

 

It appeared I was never going to get another good nights sleep again. I sat up, annoyed at the alarm bells for ringing.

It had been two days since I had seen Loki and I was unsure when he would be arriving on Earth.

“The Sanctorum is under attack!” FRIDAY said, “Strange reports strange creatures and Silene’s!”

That sprang me into action. The Silene’s were dismantling any powerful group, and that seemed to include the wizards. Excuse me, ‘Masters of the Mystic Arts.’

Bucky, Sam, Steve and Tony were the only ones in the Tower so we would be the only backup coming. I couldn’t shadow travel around the world to get everyone else.

A portal was open in the living room and as I ran up, a hand came flying through the portal. Bucky dodged it easily.

“Let’s go!” Steve called and we charged through the portal, landing in the midst of an impressive battle.

There had been another group of eight Silene’s although only four were still alive. “Keep them alive this time!” Steve called out as we joined the fray.

A red cape went sailing by me with Strange along for the ride. I waved at him before launching myself into the fray.

The Red Sparrows had brought three more monsters with them again but this time, they were unlike anything I had ever seen.

It must have once been some sort of bear or giant furry...thing but the Silene’s had embedded it with shards and carved it with runes and what was before me was some hairless atrocity with four limbs and huge teeth. It had red rimmed eyes and rune carved into it’s forehead but its eyes were tortured, almost begging me to kill it.

I swallowed back my sorrow before going toe to toe with one of the creatures, it snapped with powerful jaws and I wrapped it with fire whips, wanting to end it quickly. It let out a half roar, half scream as the fire whips wrapped around it and I quickly beheaded it, ripping the shard from it’s forehead.

My rage was heightened now. How dare they drag innocent creatures into their battles.

It appeared we had arrived at the perfect time, many of the sorcerers had fallen and Strange was the only one left standing from his group.

Sam and Bucky had already tied up several Silene’s and were busy taking out the second to last monstrous entity.

Steve and Tony had already killed the last one and were gathered around the four alive Silene’s, talking to them.

Bucky and Sam killed the thing quickly and we met in the middle, staring at the four alive Silene’s.

“Strange,” Steve said, “can you get information from them?”

I huffed, Steve obviously didn’t want me doing what I did earlier although I doubt Strange would find much.

Although, with this many captives, we might be able to piece together something.

“I can,” Strange waved his hands around in ridiculous motions before connecting to their minds with a tendril of power. I realized he was using the Time stone to return their memories to them. Honestly, a genius move.

He didn’t get very far before the Silene’s began to convulse. “The spell on their minds is very complex,” Strange admitted. “But they are planning to attack a place called Wakanda.”  
Wakanda? Wasn’t that a third world country.

Tony seemed to know something I didn’t. “FRIDAY, get me King T’Challa on the phone.”

In all the chaos, I hadn’t sensed that Loki was on Earth but now his magic wrapped around me, letting me know he was here.

While they were discussing plans and talking to T’Challa, I dissolved myself into shadows, landing in the middle of a thriving club.

The pounding music would distract anyone from hearing our conversation, I was sure. I moved through the writhing bodies, intent on finding Loki. I found him dancing with several   
scantily clad women and men in the middle of the dance floor. One put their lips to his neck and he smirked at me.

I felt a wash of jealousy but struggled to push it down. He could do what he wanted.

*Kai?* Steve’s voice echoed in my mind, *where did you go?*

*I’m busy.* I replied, *I’ll meet you guys in Wakanda.*

*Okay.* Steve really needed to stop trusting me so much.

I made my way over to Loki, stopping in front of him, my arms crossed.

Loki waved his hands and the crowd of people around him dispersed, leaving the two of us alone in the middle of the crowded dance floor.

“Is this your idea of a discreet place to meet?” I asked, staring him down. I noticed his clothes were skewed and he had sweat glistening on his neck and forehead. “How long have you been here anyways?”

Loki shrugged, “awhile.” He smirked at me, “come on Kai, dance with me.”

I cocked an eyebrow, this kind of dancing wasn’t like what we had done on the plane. It was a lot more...touchy. “No,” I said, “I just want to do our job and get out of here.”

Loki leveled me with his gaze, “dance with me.” He said again, more serious than before. I felt his magic wash over me and I looked down to see that my clothing, hair and makeup had all changed. I cocked an eyebrow at the scantily placed outfit.

“Seriously...!” I started to say but then I saw a Silene guarding a door in the corner and I realized exactly what this place was.

*This is where the Eternity Stone is hidden?* I asked, glancing around the room for more Silene guards. The music was so loud it had drowned out their mental song, which was exactly what they had wanted.

*Yes,* Loki said, slightly impatient, *now dance with me before we blow our cover. I changed your face as well,* Loki continued, if anyone but me looks on you, they won’t see your true face.*

*Why can’t we just start breaking skulls?* I whined as I moved towards him. He pulled me closer, putting his hands on my hips and I began to sway to the beat of the music.

*I’ll show you why,* he spun me so that his chest was pressed against my back and his hands went around my bare midriff. I could feel his pounding heartbeat and knew he was feeling my racing one. *Look over there.*

I looked, trying to not be distracted by his hands on my stomach and his body pressed against mine. Two Silene’s were sitting at the bar, not drinking and watching the room. They each had an Eternity Stone embedded in the backs of their hands.

Loki spun me again, putting his hands low on my hips and buried his head in the crock of my neck. I grinded on him and I felt his mental shields falter for a second and a wave of his desire crashed into me.

I caught my breath on the tidal wave of emotions before he managed to cut it off. I smirked as I pressed against him, he might’ve been able to cut off his mind from me but his body was still easily telling and for a moment, I let my fantasies run away with me as I grinded on him.

*Focus,* Loki growled and I focused my eyes on another side of the club where two Silene’s were leaning against the wall, studying the dance floor, each of them with a shard embedded in their collarbones.

I was keeping a mental count of the shards and the Silene’s when I felt Loki’s lips on my neck and the rest of my world fell away. He swayed us both to the music, his lips and hands exploring me.

I couldn’t stop the tiny moan that fell from my lips. *Now who’s the one who needs to focus,* I said, breathless.

Loki didn’t reply, his body telling me exactly what he wanted to do to me right now. One of his hands slipped up my shirt and I whimpered, begging him for more but wanting him to stop at the same time. We had a job to do.

I leaned my head back, giving his lips more access to my neck and my eyes rolled in my head. My own desire crashed into him, intertwining with his and doubling it.

Loki spun me around again and I laid eyes on the last two Silene’s, dressed as bodyguards, standing guard over a table where Arin was sitting, his eyes glazed over as he stared at the dancefloor. Bored and not paying attention.

I froze, he was here. Did he know I was here?

*We’re outnumbered,* Loki replied, *they all have shards, giving them more power. We need to be discreet.*

He pulled me closer, his hands slipped lower until they were on my butt and he began to walk me backwards. I let him, my own hands tangling up in his hair. I steeled my nerves, letting my mouth move on his neck, doing a little exploring myself.

I felt his breath hitch and his hands tremble. My back hit the wall and I pulled him closer, wondering exactly how his mouth would feel against mine.

I made eye contact with him, my mouth going dry at the desire I saw painted across his face. We were a time bomb and we were about to explode. The Eternity Stone could wait.

“Hey!” A hand landed on Loki’s shoulder and a growl escaped my throat. No one touched my mate but me.

Loki licked his lips, taking a deep breath before turning to face the girl who had grabbed his shoulder. “I’m busy,” he replied, turning back to me.

I felt his magic wash over me, realizing he had conjured an illusion of the both of us. I realized the girl was also an illusion of his. The three of us began to argue back and forth, growing louder while Loki and I slipped away from our illusions and towards the door that was being guarded by the Silene security team.

The two Silene guards took a few steps away from the door, probably debating on getting involved or not and Loki and I slipped past them and through the door.

The corridor behind it was dimly lit and we moved carefully down the hallway. I morphed back into the suit Tony had made for me and turned to see Loki in his full battle armor. I looked away quickly before I could think about how good he looked in it.

The hallway seemed to go on forever, I reached out with my mind, searching for threats.

I heard the door that we had slipped through a few minutes earlier swing open, the sound of the club music almost drowned out the words of the Silenes but our enhanced hearing picked it up. “They can’t have gone far,” it was Arins voice. “Find them!”

*Run,* I said telepathically before grabbing Loki’s hand and taking off down the hallway.

I heard the pounding feet behind us as we ran, searching for a way out. Loki spoke underneath his breath and various holograms of us peeled away, running into branching hallways and other rooms, slamming doors and making noise.

The hallway ended abruptly, a locked steel door in the way. I quickly ripped through the lock and we raced inside, Loki sealing it with his magic behind us.

We climbed the flight of stairs, A large warehouse stretched before us, the underground tunnel connected it to the club.

*Is the stone here?* I asked Loki.

*Yes.*

*Spread out.*

We split off, each taking a different section of the warehouse, hunting down the stone.

I heard the door bang open below me and Silenes came thudding up the stairs.

Loki and I exchanged a glance before we both moved off to hide.

Arin held out his hand and the stone shimmered into existence in the center of the room. Of course, he had used magic to hide it.

I studied the warehouse, plotting my escape. I was sure Loki was doing the same thing so I wasn’t too worried about him.

“Kai!” Arin called out in a sing song voice, “I know you’re here!”

I stayed hidden, not answering. I decided my best escape would be the roof, many Silenes didn’t have wings so they wouldn’t be able to follow me.

The Silene’s around Arin began to spread out, the shards that were embedded in their skin glittered. I might be able to take on a few Silenes but with those shards, I would be overpowered.

Unless, I managed to get their shards for myself. Then I could double my power and escape.

Arin said something under his breath and suddenly, a golden whip cooled out from his hand. I watched in confusion, wondering what it was.

*Move!* Loki shouted and I instantly obeyed, dodging just as the golden whip buried itself into the wall behind me. I could feel the heat coming off of it. It reminded me of Doctor Strange's magic. Had Arin gotten ahold of some of those books?

“There she is!” Arin shouted, “get her!” It appeared they didn’t know Loki was here. “And find Loki, he’s here somewhere.” Nope, I was wrong.

I took off running, leaping off from the top floor and landing on top of a Silene, snapping its neck between my thighs. I tried to shadow travel but there was strange magic around the room and I couldn’t do it.

I pulled out my swords which were attached to my suit and flew around the room, stabbing at the various minions. For every one Silene that I fought, there seemed to be two or three more humans, all of them most likely spelled through magic.

Loki darted for the stone but was thrown backwards by Arin. I resisted the urge to run across the room to see if he was okay. He was god, he’d be fine.

I continued to battle the Silenes and humans. My mental shields were strong so the Silene’s magic had no effect on me although their hallucinations were still vivid. A giant snake was thrown at me and I dodged, cutting through it with the back end of my sword where a rune lay that would destroy the hallucination.

I cut through the Silene’s, working my way towards the Eternity Stone. Loki was doing the same thing on the other side of the room and it wasn’t long until we were standing back to back, surrounded by the leftover henchmen.

Arin stepped forward, “Kai, why are you fighting me? I don’t understand,” he begged although I knew it was a front. “We’re both trying to get back home!”

“You’re going to destroy my home!” I shouted back, “you work for the Reverends and the Silene’s now!”

“They offered me glory, they offered me magic, they offered me a way to be seen as an equal.” Arin said.

“You don’t need magic to become the best,” I began, ready to repeat the lesson I had tried to teach him for years. “You can do that without magic. I tried to show you that you’re worth isn’t in magic.”

“No!” Arin hissed, “you didn’t care about me. About any of us. Not really. We were all just your charity projects, so that you could convince the people that you were fit to be their queen!”

I smirked, “is that what you tell yourself so that you’ll sleep better at night? Because you can’t hide from this Arin, you killed your family!”

I noticed that Loki had turned himself into an illusion, the one at my back wasn’t really him, it was his clone. Which meant I needed to keep up a distraction for a little longer.

I swung out my sword, “and now, you’ll face the consequences for your actions,” I hissed, “killing my knights is punishable by death.”

“You are not a queen here Kai,” Arin said, pulling out his long sword.

“I don’t need a crown or a throne,” I sneered, “I'm still a queen!” I launched myself at him, clashing my swords with his.

We spun around, testing each others strengths. “You won’t win,” Arin said as we fought.

“And why is that?” I asked, keeping everyone’s eyes on me. Loki was mostly likely grabbing the Eternity Stone.

“Because you can’t kill me,” he smirked, “you care too much about me.”

“Not anymore,” I sliced for his head, intent to cut it off but Arin spun away from me, blocking my sword. Arin could only be killed by beheading him or ripping out his heart. “But maybe I will keep you alive, it would be fun to kill you slowly,” I hissed, dodging his blade. “I could torture you, I could make you see things that aren’t really there.”

I conjured an image of his father, “you’ll never be good enough!” His father screamed, raising his hand to slap his son. Arin struck out with his sword, dismantling the hallucination.

While he was distracted, I swiped at his back, cutting across it. He cried out, spinning around to face me. I smirked at him until he shouted an incantation and I was thrown backwards.

Right, he could use magic.

It felt like there was a weight on each of my limbs, keeping me from moving. I struggled to get to my feet but the more I struggled the heavier the weight became. It was an illusion, all in my head.

“You forgot,” Arin hissed, swinging his sword as he came closer. “I’m just as powerful as you now, maybe even more. I can make you see things, make you feel things, make you writhe in pain…” He trailed off, his eyes narrowed as he suddenly threw a knife with painstaking accuracy.

It seemed to sail straight at the Eternity Stone, at thin air but I heard a yelp and then felt a blast of pain from the bond between us. Loki rematerialized, a dagger in his chest.

I screamed, both in anger and in fear, it was an inhuman like sound, similar to the one I had made when I thought he had died. But this time, it was real.

Arin smirked, “it appears I was correct. He’s your mate.” A slow smile spread across his face, “well, you know what everyone says. Losing your mate is worse than dying.” He stalked towards Loki who was ashen on the ground. I could feel the pain from his wound throbbing through me.

My heart stopped as he got closer and I struggled against the stupid spell on me. I knew I could easily beat it, I could easily get out, all I had to do was let go and embrace my true powers.

No, I couldn’t do that. I didn’t know how many innocent people would die.

Arin reached Loki and lifted him up onto his knees, preparing to cut his head off. His eyes met mine, *goodbye love.*

Fuck it.

I released the power inside me, the magic coursing through my system, burning me from the inside out. I could hear it singing, happy to finally be released.

My eyes changed color, one a burning gold and the other a deep black. My teeth sharpened, my head grew a collection of horns - sharp as razors- my skin grew patches of scales, my hands grew talons, my skin became covered in runes, each carved deep into my bones.

A lizard like tail sprung up from my back and scaly wings grew, long enough to drag on the floor.

And I sighed in relief, feeling my body relax into its original form. It felt good. It felt fantastic. I felt powerful, I felt unstoppable. I felt...like me.

I slashed out with whips made of fire and thorns and killed half the Silene’s in one swoop.

Arin was frozen in shock, his eyes wide but he didn’t hesitate before he began to swing the sword at Loki’s neck.

I spread my wings, knocking Arin through the wall and into the club. I roared and reached out with my mind, snapping my fingers and the enemies around me turned into nothing but red mist.

The wall into the club continued to crumble and the music scratched to a shock, people were staring in fear.

Arin got up to run and I pounced, ripping into him with my teeth and claws, tearing him to pieces until his screams went silent.

My glowing eyes focused on the others in the room, the other tiny little humans.

One of them screamed and my tall ears twitched in response. I snarled as the humans began to scatter.

I lunged for them, batting them aside like a cat playing with its food. Their screams were music to my ears.

Kai, I was reminded of my dying mate, on the floor behind me. A human tried to run past me and I knocked them backwards. The other civilians were crying, screaming, running and begging me to not kill them.

No one was getting to my mate.

*KAI!* Loki’s voice echoed in my mind, *the bad ones are dead, darling. Leave the mortals alone.* I could hear the pain in his voice and that grounded me.

I raced to Loki’s side, he was lying a few feet from the destruction but he was unharmed. Well, besides the dagger in his chest.

I crashed to my knees next to him and yanked the dagger from his chest, using my new found strength and magic to quickly heal him. My tail swished behind me and I folded it up with my wings to keep it out of the growing pile of blood.

His wound began to close and his pain began to fade. His hand was gripped in mine and for a second, I wasn’t worried about anything else.

Loki’s eyes cleared up and he finally looked at me, “is this your normal look?”

I shrugged, “sometimes.”

He studied me, “I like it.”

I couldn’t help but laugh, I reached out a hand and pulled him up so he was sitting next to me on the floor.

Slowly, I bottled back up my magic, forcing it back down. I slowly shrunk and lost the tail, the eyes, the talons and the horns. The runes faded from my skin and I was back to being Kai. The magic tumbled in my stomach, crying to be released but I couldn’t let it, it would kill everyone.

Loki studied me, “thanks for saving me.”

I shrugged, “don’t mention it.” I turned to look for the Eternity Stone only to find it gone.

“You have got to be kidding me,” I sighed, “who took it this time?”

“Some kid,” Loki supplied helpfully.

I narrowed my eyes at him, did he take it? “You sure about that?”

“Yes! I didn’t take it!” Loki said, “it really was some kid.”

I leaned back against the wall, “well, now we have to find it again.”

The reality of the situation came crashing down onto me as my adrenaline faded. I glanced at the empty club where Arin’s dismantled body still lay.

“Oh stars,” I sobbed, realizing what I had done. I had just killed my best friend. “Oh stars,” I said again, panic settling over me. “No, no, no, what have I done?”

“Kai,” Loki said softly, reaching out for me. I let him pull me into his lap and I wrapped my arms around him, sobbing. “You had too, he wouldn’t have stopped. He planned to destroy your people.”

I nodded, “I know. I know! But, it still hurts.” I gasped for air, “and now we have to find the stone again!”

Loki held me while I cried and for the first time, I felt like this mating bond could actually work. “Thank you,” I sniffed.

“Well, count this as repayment for saving my life,” Loki said. “I’ll still help you find the stone, although I’m still going to need that Infinity Stone as repayment for the shards of the Eternity Stone.”

I glared at him, “you’re really bringing this up now.”

Loki shrugged, smirking. “No time like the present.”

*Kai! Wakanda’s under attack!* Steve’s voice echoed faintly in my mind. We could really use your help!

I sighed, “looks like I have to go.” I got to my feet, pulling Loki up to stand next to me.

“What about the stone?”

“I’ll meet you again tomorrow,” I replied, “on Asgard. No clubs this time!” I winked as I faded into shadows.

The last thing I saw was his smirk, *no promises.*

His words were still echoing in my head as I landed inside a very high tech palace. A group of women instantly leveled spears at my chest.

“Whoa!” I shouted out, “I’m with Steve, uh, Captain America!”

Conversation in languages that I didn’t know echoed around me, Steve turned from the far corner of the room by a window. “Kai! You made it, we could really use your help.”

“I thought you said the city was under attack?” As I asked, something exploded outside.

“It is,” a voice replied and I turned to see King T’Challa. He held out his hand and I shook it.

“Your majesty,” I replied.

T’Challa studied me, “not to offend you but how can we trust you? You look just like the ones who are attacking us.”

I cocked my head, “I look like a Silene?”

“No,” Steve spoke up, “Kai, you’d better come and look.” He motioned for the windows and I moved to his side, staring out. I blinked at the sight before me and at the song that invaded my ears.

Each Singer had a different song depending on their powers, since I was the only Celestial, I had never heard my own although people had tried to sing it to me before.

Below me, wrecking havoc on the city were two twins - barely older than fifteen - and their music matched my own.

“Celestial Singers,” I whispered. “But, how?”

Slowly, both twins turned to look at me with glowing golden eyes. The girl held up her hand, blasting magic at us.

I snapped from my shock, “LOOK OUT!” I threw a shield up to protect us as the glass shattered.

They swooped upwards towards me, “Queen Kaieada,” they spoke in unison which creeped me out. “You are to die for your crimes.”

“Okay, cool. Cool. Cool, cool, cool, coolcoolcool.” I said, backing up, “when did they get here Steve?”

“They were the ones leading the army, they broke down the force field around the city a few minutes ago,” T’Challa replied. “Can you stop them?”

“Yes,” I replied confidently.

The two twins were floating in the air, watching me. They seemed to make up the bulk of the attack, only a few Silene’s were still alive and now that I was distracting the Celestial Singers, the Wakandan forces and the Avengers were easily taking out the others.

The boy laughed, “you cannot defeat us,” he said, his accent was familiar. The accent of royalty. “We are more powerful than you, because we embrace our chaos magic, not repress it.” He was referring to the monster inside of me.

“We’ll see about that,” I cracked my fingers, “okay, I’m gonna go babysit. The rest of you, take care of the ones on the ground, I’ll get them out of the city.”

I launched myself into the air, spreading my wings of light and shot upwards, past the two twins. “Come out and play!”

The twins obliged, following me from the city until I stood in an open field. “Show me what you were taught,” I held up my hands, motioning for them to attack me.

And attack me they did. I took blow after blow from the both of them, dodging their mental attacks and their physical ones.

As they attacked me, I analyzed them. It seemed the powers of a Celestial Singer were split between them, seemingly at random. The boy mostly focused on mental powers while the girl had more control over the elements.

I was miffed about that, I didn’t have control over elements. Or maybe I did and it was apart of the powers I kept bottled up.

I realized they were also analyzing my fight patterns, getting to know me just as well as I was getting to know them.

“KAI!” I heard shouting from behind me, my heart stopping because I recognized the voice.

“Evan?” I spun around to see Evanee standing behind me. Behind her was Ayla, Si and Vin, all of them looking at me in horror.

“What are you doing?” Ayla asked.

“I’m roasting kettle chips,” I replied. It was an inside joke and if it was really them, they would know the correct response.

They all blinked at me and I knew it wasn’t really them. Although, killing them would still be hard.

Something slammed into me from behind and I realized one of the kids had thrown a tree branch at me. Damn, they couldn't be more than fifty and they still packed a punch.

The four hallucinations of my friends lunged for me while the twins came at me from the other side. I sliced at the hallucinations with the magic end of my sword but they didn’t fade, they didn’t even bleed.

Great, so the twins were as good as I was at solidifying hallucinations.

I wondered if they were solid enough to do damage to me?

One of them slammed me with the butt of their sword and my question was answered as I flew several feet backwards, stumbling into a pit that appeared out of nowhere.

“Bury her Io” the boy commanded and the girl, Io, obliged, filling the hole.

I threw a shield up around me, using it to combat the falling dirt until I was buried with a perfect circular bubble around me.

The weight pressed down on my shield and reminded me of a time I was trapped inside the Soul Eater Caverns, slowly suffocating under the rock and shackles around me. I pushed down my panic, this wasn’t that. I could get out.

I shoved upwards with my shield, blowing a hole in the Earth and soaring outwards on wings of shadow. I landed on the ground, spitting dirt from my mouth.

“Okay,” I said to the two twins, “now I’m mad.” The hallucinations of my friends had vanished so I knew they couldn’t keep up the corporal projections for long.

I let my eyes turn black, my horns come out and my swords began to glow with a purple ring. A special spell that had been forged into the metal, it would paralyze anyone, even a Celestial, long enough for me to cut them to pieces.

To their credit, the two twins actually looked scared. Good. I launched myself at them, screaming a battle cry, ready to take them out.

They charged me and I slammed my sword into one of their heads, for a second, their eyes flickered from gold to blue and they looked terrified. “What?” The boy began before his eyes turned gold again and he attacked me.

I remembered Loki’s mind control, did someone use a similar spell on these kids? I hesitated in my swing and in response, I got impaled.

I cried out in pain, falling to my knees. Loki’s worry shot down the bond between us but I warned him against coming to help me, the Avengers would discover he was alive.

I used some remaining magic to shoot the twins both backwards and they slammed their heads hard against the ground.

I pulled the sword from my chest, already feeling the wound beginning to close. I half expected Loki to come running from the woods but he heeded my warning and didn’t come although I could feel his presence strongly in my mind, checking on me.

The wound healed and I stalked towards the twins, my sword out.

I came across a strange picture, the girl was shaking the shoulder of the boy, trying to get him to wake up. Her eyes were a deep purple color, no longer with a golden sheen to them.

“Please wake up,” she whispered, shaking her brothers shoulder. Her brother groaned, revealing bright blue eyes.

As I approached, the girl shrunk away from me, putting her hands up. “Please,” she gasped, “please, don’t hurt us. We didn’t know!”

I wondered if they were tricking me, it would be a good ploy to stay alive. But, I thought of Loki who had been wrongfully accused of doing something he couldn’t control and almost dying for it.

I put my swords down, “what are your names?”

“I’m Io,” the girl said.

“I”m Ty,” the boy added.

“Why did you attack us?”

“The Sparrows said we had to do what they said or else they would kill our family,” Ty explained, “please, we just want to go home.”

“The forced us to come here,” Io said with tears running down her face. “They said you were evil and needed to be stopped.”

Anger burned through me, how dare they! How dare they bring innocent fifteen year old children into this fight! I would kill every single one of them for it.

I crouched down so I was on their level, “don’t worry, we’ll get you back home.”

I wondered if this was the kids that Loki has seen steal the stone. “Did you guys happen to take something that looked like this?” I said conjuring an image of the Eternity Stone in my hand. They nodded.

“It’s still missing a price,” Io supplied, “I don’t know where it is.”

“That’s okay,” I said, “I can get you set up in a safe place and then once I get the other piece, we can put it back together.”

“Kai!” Steve came running up along with Sam and Bucky. “What’s going on?”

Io and Ty put up their hands, scared. “It’s okay,” I assured them, “they were under mind control,” I explained to the others. “They weren’t responsible for their actions.”

T’Challa arrived and I once again explained the situation. “My people have been harmed by your magic, I need some sort of justice.”

“We can heal them,” Ty offered.

“And fix your buildings!” Io added helpfully.

T’Challa hesitated, “fine. But, you will be with an escort from my personal guard until you leave.”

Ty and Io seemed to think that was a fine choice.

I tried not to ask about the Eternity Stone to eagerly but I wanted to go home. I just needed to get Loki the stone he wanted.

I wasn’t keen on giving him the mind stone, since it had a hold over his mind. Maybe he would accept an alternative.

Looks like I would be making a trip to Asgard. “While you get them set up, I need to go.”

“Where are you going?” Ty spoke up, scared.

I ruffled his hair, “I’ll be back soon.”

I gathered up my magic to shadow travel but Steve put a hand on my arm, “you’ve been vanishing a lot lately Kai.” He said, “and you’re not telling me why.”

I sighed, “don’t worry Steve. I promise I’ll be back soon.”

I smiled at the twins, “when I get back, we’ll open a portal home with the stone.” I choked up on the word ‘home,’ I was finally going.

The twins eyes lit up as well.

I shadow travelled to various locations before taking a plane to a city near my base and then driving the rest of the way.

My new vault had set itself up while I was gone and I quickly found what I was looking for. I pocketed it and left my vault, making sure I was a good hour away before calling for a portal to Asgard.

I soared for the palace, giddy with the idea of going home. I found Loki on his private terrace waiting for me. I couldn’t keep the smile on my face as I raced into the room.

“You look excited,” Loki commented, “it’s a good look.”

I plopped the sphere down on the table. “I’ve given you what you asked for, can i please have the shards?”

Loki glanced at the box and then back at me, “I assume you found the rest of the stone?”

I nodded, to impatient to explain so I showed him an image of the twins and the stone.

Loki raised his eyebrows, “two more celestials? That is very interesting.”

“Loki,” I whined, “I gave you an Infinity Stone. I want the shards,” I held out my hand.

Loki picked up the sphere, opening it to find the Aether inside. “I thought Thor hid this.”

“I stole it over a year ago,” I explained. “I couldn’t get the Mind Stone.”

Loki turned to me, shaking his head. “Well, I can’t give you the Eternity Stone shards. Our deal was for the Mind Stone.”

“Yeah, and I couldn’t get the Mind Stone, so,” I waved a hand at the Aether, “I’m giving you that.”

Loki closed the sphere, “no. I wanted the Mind Stone.”

My anger built, “You have no use for the shards!” I bit, “there is no reason for you to keep them. So, why not just give them to me?”

Loki smirked, “because I enjoy watching you squirm Kai.”

My mind flashed back to that night in the club with his hands all over me. I knew he was thinking of the same thing from his hooded eyes and gaze.

“Please,” I decided to test out the bond between us. Maybe if I begged he’d give it to me.

“Don’t try it,” Loki hissed.

I hid my smirk well but I knew it was working. I approached him slowly, “Loki please, I just want to go home.”

He let me approach, probably debating internally about my mood swing. I put my hands on his chest, “Please,” I asked again, twisting my face to give him puppy eyes.

He reached down, grabbing my wrists and pulled me from him. “No,” he said.

I frowned, I had already given him the Aether. Why else would he keep me here?

Then it dawned on me, maybe he didn’t want me to leave. Maybe he wanted me to stay.

I swallowed, I couldn’t think about that, I had to get home. I couldn’t stay here.

“Do you want me to stay?” I whispered, “is that why you won’t give it to me?”

Loki looked taken aback, “w-what? No! Of course not!”

“Well, that’s the only reason I can think of,” I crossed my arms. “So prove me wrong.”

Loki gritted his teeth, his eyes flitted back and forth as he thought. “Fine,” he conjured the shards in his hand, handing me the last part of the stone. “Here.”

 

I snatched it from his hand, my smile coming back. “Thanks!” I sang.

“Hey! Wait a second,” Loki laughed, “was that just a trick to get me to give it to you?”

I vanished the stone to a pocket realm, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I turned to leave but felt a sorrow come over me that wasn’t my own. I realized this would be the last time I ever saw him. My friend. My mate.

Don’t turn around. Don’t turn around.

“Kai,” I heard Loki whisper and my resolution broke. I spun around, raced back to him and pulled him into a hug, blinking back my tears.

Loki froze, unsure of what to do before he wrapped me tightly into his arms.

“Goodbye,” I said, unsuccessfully keeping my voice from breaking.

“You’ll be missed Kai,” Loki replied.

I stayed in his arms for an immeasurable moment before pulling away. I wanted to kiss him, to stay here on Asgard one more night but I knew that if I did, leaving would be impossible.

As I formed the thought, I realized Loki understood and had come to the same conclusion as I had.

So, I turned and left. And he turned away from me and we left the visions we had had about our children and a happy life together in the space between us.

And I ran for the bridge, my tears flowing now. I couldn’t stay in Asgard for fear of turning around and going back.

I turned and glanced back once more at the palace, feeling his eyes on me. If I squinted, I could see him, watching me leave.

It is said that once two mates accept the bond between them, a song begins in their mind that plays until they’re both dead. A song about their relationship that changes as they grow.

And as I moved for the bifrost I heard a few somber notes, the song of our sorrows as I shot back to Earth, the Stone in my hand.

 

***

 

I raced for the living room of the Avengers tower to find most of the team, the twins sitting uncomfortably among them as Steve explained to them the rules of living with the Avengers.

“I got the rest of it,” I said breathlessly, holding up the rest of the stone. I couldn’t keep the grin from my face.

The twins perked up, “we’re going home!” Io shouted.

“Yes,” I said, my voice cracking. “We’re going home.”

“We’ll get the rest of the stone,” Ty said and the twins vanished.

The team stared at me, Peter was tearing up.

Bucky was the first one to move, pulling me into a hug. “Be careful up there,” he said, “you won’t have me to watch your back.”

I rolled my eyes, “sure, sure.”

I felt someone else wrap their arms around me and realized it was Peter. I was enveloped in a group hug from everyone in the tower, even Pepper was here.

They all pulled away and I blinked back tears, “I’ll miss you guys,” I finally said.

“Where did you find the other half of the stone?” Steve asked.

Oh, I hadn’t thought that far ahead. “One of the Silenes forgot to wipe their memories, it was in a vault.” It was a weak excuse but I doubted I would be questioned.

Steve nodded, although he seemed to still be thinking.

Couldn't Loki sense the shards? Steve asked.

I froze, he’s dead Steve.

I know but he’s tricked us before. Besides, you’ve been spending a lot of time on Asgard.

I sent a laugh his way, trust me, I wouldn’t be able to stand him. I would tell you if he was alive.

The twins reappeared, each holding a half of the stone. We had all the pieces together.

My heart pounded as they put the pieces on the coffee table, Io pushed them together and the stone glowed, creating one large piece.

I swallowed before clicking the last piece into place. The Stone was complete.

We all stared at it in silence.

“So, now what?” I heard Sam whisper.

“Now, we go home,” I put my hand out, willing it to do what I wanted. The stone began to glow, reacting to my presence.

“Come on,” I gritted my teeth, concentrating on what I wanted it to do, “come on.”

The stones glow faded and stilled. It hadn’t worked.

Why hadn’t the stone sent us home?

“What’s wrong with it?” Io whispered.

“It didn’t work?” Ty said, tears swimming in his eyes.

“No, no, no,” I put my hands back out, willing it to turn on. “Come on, COME ON!” I grabbed it, shaking it.

The Eternity Stone was broken.


	4. Chapter Four

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Due to the fact that I can't use italics, all telepathic communication will be marked with *asterisks*

POV: Kai

 

I moved the stone to a little used dining room and there I parked myself beside it, willing it to work.

I spent three days staring into it, screaming at it, shaking it, even throwing it against the far wall but the stone continued to sparkle, useless.

The twins occasionally came by to help but after I had snapped at them, bearing my fangs, they had been avoiding me, choosing to hole up in their room, hopeless.

"What are we going to do?" I heard whispered voices outside. "She hasn't eaten, hasn't slept."

It was Tony, Steve and Bucky.

"We can't force her," Bucky said, "she might accidentally hurt us."

"Her entire life's goal failed," Steve said, "I don't know if we can do anything."

"But we can't just leave her in there," Tony argued, "she'll starve."

"She can't die," Bucky supplied helpfully, "she'll just slowly begin to turn to stone."

"That's not better!" Tony replied.

I growled, I didn't like them worrying about me.

"Steve, you go and talk to her," Bucky said, "you two have become close, she'll listen to you."

Steve sighed and I heard the door click open behind me but I didn't move, my eyes still glued to the stone. Exactly how they had been for the past four days.

"Kai," Steve started softly, "can I get you anything."

I didn't answer, still focused on the stone. I had cut off my emotions at this point, not wanting to feel anything. Loki wouldn't even be able to feel my mind, I was sure of it.

"I brought you this," I smelled food. "Bucky went to your favorite bakers and managed to convince them to make this." It was a special type of pastry that had gone out of favor during the war but I had loved it.

I still didn't move as Steve plopped the warm pastry down next to me. He turned to leave before stopping at the door, "we'll figure it out Kai. Strange is doing research, we'll find a way to get you home."

I was too dehydrated to cry but if I could, I would be. I just wanted to go home.

The next day, someone else came in. "Kai?" Peter asked hesitantly, "are you okay?"

No, obviously not.

"I got you a churro from my favorite truck." He said, putting it down on the table. "I know you don't want to talk, which is okay. I didn't want to talk either after my uncle Ben died. But, just know we're here for you."

It was another few hours before someone else enters the room, "okay," Nat said, "you aren't doing any good just sitting here," she said, "it's time to get up," she stood next to me, her arms crossed. "You need to do more research, maybe you missed something. Maybe Asgard has answers, you can go there and ask Odin for help." She suggested.

When I didn't move Nat sighed, "okay," her hand reached out and flicked the stone, the ringing echoed around the room.

I whipped my head around, growling at her but she didn't move. She studied me before turning and leaving the room, "well?" I heard Bruce ask.

"I got a growl out of her," Nat said. "She isn't stone yet."

I sat there for a few more hours, turning over what Natasha had said. Asgard has had spell books about my people in the past, maybe there would be something in their libraries.

I stood up, intent to travel to Asgard but got a glimpse of myself in the mirror. Whoa.

I shadow travelled to my room, showered and changed. I could've used my magic to do it but I wanted to do something routine, it helped me focus.

I realized I was starving and cast my mind outwards, trying to see where everyone was. There were several people in the kitchen.

I sighed, I'd eat later.

I took a deep breath, letting my emotions release.

I shadow travelled to the roof, "Scourge!" A second later, I was shooting up for Asgard.

I landed on the bifrost bridge, "don't tell Odin I'm here," I replied, erasing Scourge's memory with a wave of my hand.

I shadow travelled through Asgard, disguising myself as an Asgardian maid. I made my way to Odin's private library, keeping an eye out and a mental eye out for Loki and anyone who might bother me.

I walked into the library, blown away by the beauty of it all. I tore my eyes away from the sparkling tree, no time. Loki would figure out I was here sooner or later.

I began to root through Odin's private library, searching for anything that might be helpful. I found another ancient book similar to the one I had stolen and vanished it to a pocket dimension, not even bothering to copy it and replace it.

I continued to move around the library, stealing any book that sounded useful.

"I thought you would be gone by now," Loki's voice echoed behind me and I tried not to jump in surprise.

I continued to root through the books, ignoring him. "I thought so too," I replied, vanishing another book.

"Why are you rooting through my library?" Loki asked, moving closer.

I debated on how to answer, "none of your business."

I could almost feel Loki cocking his eyebrow, "I assume the stone didn't work."

I froze, swallowing back my tears. "No," I finally said, "it didn't."

Loki was silent and I wondered if he had decided to leave me alone but I turned to see him still standing there, studying me with something almost similar to pain and sympathy across his face.

"So, what are you going to do now?"

I shook my head, "I don't know." I whispered, "I don't know." All of my emotions began to come to the surface, everything that I had been keeping inside me. "I've spent seventy years hunting the shards, building the stone back up so I could get home. I thought that if I put the stone together, I could go home. There was no reason why it shouldn't have worked! It should have worked and I should be back home, in my own palace, with a crown on my head and an army at my back so I could restore peace. So I could bring balance back to my dying world!

"And yet, I am still stuck here! In this worthless purgatory; with no goals, no purpose to my life and no way back home!" I realized my voice had risen to a shout as I talked and I tried to calm down. "And now I have to live the rest of my life knowing that my people are slowly dying along with their world and I am helpless to stop it. It is my fault that they'll die because it was I who brought the stone to this realm and it is I who will cause their deaths."

Loki sighed, "I cannot offer you a path back home," he began, "nor can I give you a crown or an army. But, I can offer you a place to stay. For a little while at least," he added. "Study all the books you like, ask any of our scholars questions. And," he smiled, "return the books you just vanished back to my library."

I waved my hand and all the books I had stolen thudded onto the table, "thank you Loki."

Loki nodded, "I'll help you when I can."

I sent a message to the Avengers Tower, letting everyone know where I was and then, I began to research.

I spent the rest of the day and night in the library, pouring over books. A maid stopped by a little later, a large platter of food with her and I realized how hungry I was. I devoured the platter in record time before diving back into the books.

It was early morning when I realized how exhausted I was. I sent a maid to find King Odin - I almost slipped and called him Loki - but I fell asleep before he could arrive.

I awoke in a soft bed, the sun strong on my face. I opened my eyes, realizing I was in my old bedroom on Asgard. The sun was high in the sky and I sat up quickly, realizing how late it was.

A maid was waiting outside and when I opened the door, she sent off for a plate of food. I quickly changed into an Asgardian dress, ate my food and made my way to the library, where I spent the entire day, passing out from exhaustion in the late evening and waking up in the morning to continue.

That's how I spent my first week on Asgard. I learned much about Asgard's history including things about Loki I hadn't known but finding information about my own people was difficult. If only I had those missing pages, I might be able to glean more knowledge.

Near the end of the first week, I finally found something. It was an old diary shoved in the back corner of a shelf that I had missed the first time around.

I opened it to find the writing was my own peoples, my heart leapt and I carefully opened it.

January 7th, 0900: The Infinity Stones and the Eternity Stones have caused a great rift among our peoples. Something must be done to stop it. The twelve stones are too powerful for any one person. It has been decided that the stones must be separated to protect the universe. It is not enough to simply separate them by distance. They must be separated by space, time and reality itself. It sorrows me to place an irreversible boundary between our peoples but it is for the best. One reality will contain the Eternity Stones, and one will have the Infinity Stones. By doing this, the stones will never be together again.

April 20th, 0908:: It has been eight years since the Great Divide. The Ancient Ones are discussing about erasing the minds of everyone so they do not remember the other stones. I fear they will erase mine as well and will record a history of our peoples here in this journal. The six stones are still powerful and the Reverend Mother has proposed an outcome that will benefit everyone. A ritual can be done that will combine five of the six Eternity Stones into one. She will not elaborate on the ritual but if it involves the Death Stone, it cannot be good. I will try to talk sense into the Ancient Ones but I doubt they will hear my pleas.

August 1st, 0908: The Eternity Stone has finally become a reality. All of the Eternity Stones have been combined; all but the Death Stone. Now, no one can take advantage of the powers of the stones. The Ancient Ones have agreed to guard it, placing powerful magic on it to hide it from those who are not worthy to wield it.

But, I fear we cannot control it. I looked inside the stone and I saw rage, power and destruction. These stones are not to be taken lightly. They have a mind of their own and the person who wields them is just as likely to be controlled by the Eternity Stone as they are capable of controlling it.

We've locked it deep within the vaults of the palace, fearing those who might find it and learn to use it's power. The Reverend Mother has taken a special interest in the stone and I fear that she and her priests will use its power to advance their magic; far beyond the unholiness it already has become. Everyday, the Reverends experiment on their magic, using it for things that push us further from our gods. I will continue to study the stone and record my findings in this journal.

December 12th, 0908: The Ancient Ones have used the stones on their children and families. We are stronger, faster, smarter and live longer. Our minds sing to one another. Our blood has changed from red to silver. Our hearts beat but our bodies do not age. We have powers, great powers that were gifted to us from the stone itself.

October 31st, 0910: The stone has grown more beautiful by the day. I have spent hours watching it, staring inside of it. I can see the future, I can change the future. This stone contains unlimited power. If I wield it I will be able to erase pain, erase suffering from my world. I wonder what unlimited power would feel like.

December 5th, 0910: I have discovered a plot by the Reverend Mother. She wants the stone for herself. I must protect the stone. I must keep it safe.

January 1st, 0911: Everyone is my enemy, they all want the stone for themselves. My only chance to save it is to take the power upon me. I can take the power and I can stop their lusting after it. I can make them see the right way.

January 5th, 0911: My heart is filled with sorrow, the Eternity Stone has not accepted me as it's host. I have been cast from my home world to live my days out on Asgard. They stare at me oddly, I am no longer the superior race here. My blood is red again, the stone has stripped me of my powers. I feel my body dying. I was not worthy of the stone and I pray whoever wields it next will be more powerful than me, powerful enough for the stone to see them as an equal, as a friend. Without that bond, the stone will kill you. The stone does what it wants, we are just the puppets in its game. Oh stars! What monstrous thing have we created? What object of great misery have we built from our hope?

The diary ended, many pages still remained unfilled. Goosebumps covered my arms, who had written this? I flipped through the diary, searching for a name but I found none.

"Are you alright?" Loki's voice asked. I glanced up at him, I hadn't seen him in a few days, he was much busier as a king than I thought.

I nodded, closing the book. "Yes," I replied, "what are you doing here?"

He waved his hand and his outfit morphed into a riding outfit, "I want you to come riding with me."

I shook my head, "no, I can't leave. Not until I find something to use."

"You've been searching for days," Loki pointed out, "you need a break."

"What I need is a way home," I protested. "I can't afford to take breaks, my people are dying."

Loki sighed, his clothes morphing back into what he was wearing before. "Fine, let me help." He sat across from me, studying the pile of books. "What are you looking for?"

"Anything about the stone," I replied, "and anything you can find on Nemesis."

Loki stilled, "Nemesis?"

I narrowed my eyes at him, "do you know something?"

Loki shook his head, "Nemesis is the goddess of revenge. She was once a goddess on Asgard before she was killed."

"Tell me about her," I said, leaning forwards.

Loki gave me a detailed telling of her life. I listened intently. Eventually, he changed the subject and we talked late into the night, laughing about various things. I realized I liked this side of us, the peaceful side, when we weren't burdened down by duties or war.

"Wait," I finally said, "you're distracting me." I held up my hands, "okay, break time is over, I've got to do more work," I yawned, trying to cover it.

"You're exhausted Kai," Loki said, "you need to sleep."

I shook my head, "no. I need to find something to help me."

Loki sat back, "fine but I'm going to sit here and keep distracting you."

Loki stayed for a while, even coming back more and more often.

Maybe I should bring the stone to Asgard, then I could study it and the books at the same time. I decided on doing it later that day.

"You're trusting me around the stone?" Loki smirked. "Aren't you worried about me stealing it?"

We were both riding for the bifrost, although we were taking our time in getting there. Loki was a little off today, I could tell. He wasn't as lively as he had been for the past few weeks. I wondered what was bothering him but didn't ask. I shouldn't care enough as I did.

Loki slowed, walking his horse beside mine as we made our way towards the bifrost gate. I noticed Scourge wasn't at his post.

Loki swung down from his horse, pulling me down from mine. He held me in his arms for a second before letting me go.

"I'll probably be back in a few days," I explained, "I need to make some apologies." I had growled and bit at several people. I think at one point I had thrown Steve across the room.

Loki nodded, his mind elsewhere.

"Okay, what's bothering you?" I finally asked, fed up with his far away gazes and sorrowful glances. "I noticed this morning and it's been driving me crazy all day."

Loki gave a tiny smile, stepping closer to me. "I just keep thinking about that night on the terrace, the night I thought you were leaving for good."

I swallowed, I didn't like to think of that night. Of the song I had heard in my head. I had almost turned my back on my people for him. Almost. "What about it?"

Loki studied me, his green eyes piercing my brown ones. "I just keep thinking about the way you felt in my arms," he whispered, stepping another inch closer to me. I couldn't step back unless I wanted to fall off the edge of the world so I stood my ground, hoping and fearing his touch. "And how much I didn't want you to leave," he continued.

His hand came up to cup my cheek and I leaned into his touch, his other hand went around my waist, pulling me closer to him. "I thought you were going to be gone forever and all I could think about was how I didn't kiss you, how I didn't make you mine." My heart pounded at his words. His face dipped down towards mine, "I'm not making that same mistake twice." He whispered before his lips crashed into mine.

His desire for me slammed into me at the same time his lips did and my body moved before I even really understood what I was doing. I twisted my hands up into his hair, pulling him closer to me. I heard myself let out a moan and that seemed to be his undoing, whatever resolve he had had snapped.

His hands moved from my waist and roamed over me, skewing the armour I wore across my heart. I had half a mind to simply pull it off. His body pressed against me, letting me feel him everywhere. I groaned again and his tongue darted into my mouth. I let his tongue explore me, my eyes rolling in my head.

He pulled back for a second before diving in again, clutching me tighter against him, his hands shaking as he gripped me.

I felt magic around us and wondered if he was cloaking us from sight. I opened my eyes to see, only to find him with tears in his eyes.

"Wha-?" I began to ask what was wrong but before I could finish, something pierced my heart.

I knew instantly what it was, the Soul Eater metal dug into my heart, choking me. I gasped for air, panicking. For a second, I thought we were being attacked but then I realized Loki was holding the dagger.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, he pulled the dagger out of my chest and I felt a piece break off, lodging in my heart.

No.

*Loki?* I could hear the betrayal and shock in my own voice. I stumbled backwards, gasping for air but there was nowhere to go but off the edge of the bridge.

I tumbled into the water, the pain in my chest too great to focus, my world began to go dark.

The last thing I saw before I fell off the edge of the world was the grief stricken face of my mate as he held the bloody dagger in his hands, tears streaming down his face, watching me fall off his planet.

***

Io

I sat next to the Scrying bowl, Ty was next to me and we were channeling our energy into it. Runes surrounded the bowl and danced in the water and with our Celestial powers, it was easy to reach across realities.

"The gateway is sealed," I said into the bowl, knowing that They were on the other side listening. "No one can get in or out."

"Excellent," the scratchy voice replied. "Once the time is right, I will give the signal for you to open the gate."

"Thy will be done," I replied and the connection was cut off. We couldn't talk for long between the realities.

Ty helped me to my feet and we stared at the twinkling Eternity Stone on it's pedestal. It was covered in runes, runes that only we could see.

I could feel the stone, it was like it had a mind of its own. And it wasn't happy to being bound but it was for its own good.

Soon, all the pieces would align. And everything would fall into place. And then, a glorious ending to a bloody story.


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because I can't use italics, all telepathic communication is marked with *asterisk* If you would like to read it with italics and other features, it is also located on WattPad under the username, Ariadnesmaze.

Loki

 

It had been two days since I had killed Kai. I could no longer feel her mind, or her feelings.

I would never hear her voice or feel her skin again. My sorrow only strengthened my resolve. I had to kill her. If i had let her continue to live she would've used my passion for her to take over the throne, the one thing I wanted.

I threw myself into my work, trying to find anything to distract me. I even went so far as to write a play, the Tragedy of Loki of Asgard.

I cut her from the play, not wanting to see her on stage and because I knew I could find no one to match her beauty.

It premiered in the middle of the day and I was already drunk, I had been drinking most days, trying to forget Kai.

It came as a large surprise when Thor showed up, carrying the skull of Sutur with him.

"Lock this in the vault so it doesn't grow big and destroy the whole planet," he said, handing the skull to someone.

"So, it's back to Midgard for you?" I asked, trying my best to pretend to be Odin while half drunk. It was not going well.

"Nope." Thor said, tossing his hammer. I was only have paying attention to him. He went off about a dream he was having but my head was reeling from all the wine.

"Oh, that's just a silly dream. Signs of an overactive imagination," I replied, knowing it wasn't my best comeback.

"Possibly, but then I decide to go out there and investigate and what do I find but the nine realms completely in chaos?" He tossed his hammer and I remembered what it was like to be hit by that thing. "Enemies of Asgard assembling, plotting our demise, all while you Odin, the protector of those nine realms are sitting here, in your bathrobe, eating grapes."

"Yes," I said, stepping back as he advanced on me. "Well it is best to respect our neighbors freedom."

Thor smiled evilly and I knew he knew who I really was. "Yes of course, the freedom to me massacred." He threw his hammer and I flinched as it flew right by my face before soaring back into his own hands.

"Yes, besides I've been rather busy myself."

"Watching theatre?"

"Well, board meetings and security council meetings, and.." I was running out of excuses. I couldn't very well tell him that I had killed Kai, my one shot at happiness.

"You're really going to make me do it?" Thor asked, towering over Odin's shorter form.

"Do what?" In my drunken state, I hadn't connected the two dots yet.

Thor connected them for me as he threw his hammer as hard as he could into the distance and then grabbed the back of my head. "You know that nothing will stop Mjölnir as it returns to my hand. Not even your face."

"You've gone quite mad, you could be executed for this!" I shouted but knew I was out of options. I tried to salvage my pride by waiting as long as I could before the hammer hit me. Maybe it would be a mercy to die and join Kai.

That thought was what made me yield. I was not a weakling broken by death. "ALRIGHT, I YIELD!"

Thor shoved me hard as the hammer almost hit me and I stumbled across the floor as my hologram faded. The crowd all gasped as I was revealed to really be Loki and not Odin.

Well, it had been a successful few years of rule.

"Where's Odin?"

I tried to stall but he was having none of it. He pinned me to the couch with his hammer and the weight of it made me quickly yield.

"Ow, ow, ow! Okay, I know exactly where he is."

It wasn't long until we were standing on the sidewalk, watching a care home being destroyed by bulldozers.

I was quickly sobering up, "I swear I left him right here."

"Right here on the sidewalk or right there where the building is being demolished. Great planning!"

"How was I supposed to know. I can't see the future, I'm not a witch."

"No? Then why do you dress like one?" My offense was quickly swallowed up by his next words, "I can't believe you're alive! I saw you die, I mourned you, I cried for you."

"I'm honored," I said, truly at a loss of what to say. I was doing the same thing for Kai.

I was saved from answering by the arrival of a few girls who wanted a picture with Thor. I didn't bother to contain my eye roll as they snapped a photo and then ran off.

Magic shown around my feet and I froze, trying to trace the source. It was golden, like Kai's magic and my heart leapt.

She was alive!

The floor dropped out from underneath me and I was swallowed up into darkness.

Thirty minutes later, I thudded to the wooden floor. "I HAVE BEEN FALLING! FOR THIRTY MINUTES!" I pulled my knives, recognizing Doctor Strange but not caring in the moment. I had been hoping it had been Kai and now my hope had been destroyed all over again. "You second rate sorcerer."

Another golden portal swallowed us up and I slammed to the ground in Norway.

Odin was sitting on a rock, staring out at the ocean. He spoke to us quickly, claiming he loved us before he vanished into golden mist.

Thunder rumbled and I reached out for Thor, realizing he was all I had left. "Brother..." I started to say.

"This was your doing," he started and I tensed, not wanting to destroy another relationship but knowing I had to defend myself.

Before he could attack me, a portal appeared and a woman stepped out. For two seconds, I prayed it was Kai coming to kill me but it was much worse.

A woman dressed in a ripped black leotard with ratty black hair stepped out from the portal and i knew the portal led to Hel.

The fight was short and we were incredibly outnumbered. Thor's hammer was shattered and I did the only thing I could think to do in the moment. "BRING US BACK!"

We shot into the bifrost but Scourge had no where near the control Heimdall did and Hela followed us through.

I threw a knife, knowing it wouldn't do much good and a moment later, I was impaled and flying out of the bifrost path.

As I tumbled through the stars, I closed my eyes, knowing I was joining Kai.

 

***

Loki

 

I crash landed on a planet, which did nothing to help the stab wound in my side, that was covered in trash.

Something hit me in the face and I grunted, struggling to sit up. "Oh ho! That's another point for me Topaz!"

The sun alighted behind the face of a man with white hair, a golden bathrobe and a blue streak on his chin.

"Oh oops, looks like we hit something," a girl guard said who I assumed was Topaz. I reached out for Topaz's mind, learning all I could about who stood before me. His name was GrandMaster.

The GrandMaster stared down at me, "oh dear, looks like we've hit an alive, attractive thing." He reached down and pulled me to my feet.

I yanked the dagger from my side, "thank you," I said, giving a winning smile. If I could earn this man's trust then I could establish myself here without having to compete in the Contest of Champions. "You saved my life." I doubled over as if in pain, although my wound was already healing.

The GrandMaster adjusted his bathrobe collar, "it's no trouble at all. Why don't we get you back to my place and fix you up."

Perfect. "That would be most kind."

The GrandMaster helped load me into a golf cart and I realized they had been playing some bizarre form of golf where they were aiming for falling pieces of trash.

The GrandMaster insisted I lay on his lap so as not to jostle my wound. I happily obliged, looks like I was going to be just fine.

We arrived back at the palace that was the house of the GrandMaster and I was put up in my own very expensive room and a nurse began to attend me.

I willed my wound to stop healing so I had some injury to show for it. I pretend to make a miraculous recovery underneath the GrandMasters careful tending.

"The pain is completely gone," I said in wonder although that was due to my own magic. "You're quite amazing at this."

The GrandMaster waved his hand, "oh please, you flatter me. It was nothing."

I continued to chat him up, until I was sure I had gained my trust. Now, there shouldn't be anything that stood in my way of my rise to the top.

There was only a few things I could do to ensure I stayed in favor with the GrandMaster. So, I did them.

The next day, the GrandMaster was eager to introduce me to his crew. "Come on in," he led me into a room where a bunch of people stood around mingling, drinking and laughing. A band played music at the far end of the room. "This is where we hang out, enjoy each other's company."

"I'll introduce you to my Inner Circle - so to speak." I assumed his 'Inner Circle' were those who had gone the extra mile to earn his trust.

I met many people, making sure I kept track of each of their names. "This is Scrapper 142," he pointed to a girl with white markings on her face, tan skin and brown eyes. "She brought me my beloved champion."

"Hi," 142 was quick and to the point.

"There's one more person I want you to meet," the GrandMaster wiggled his eyebrows and I wondered who it would be. "She's around here somewhere...ah!"

He led me over to a group of people talking quietly. They all turned as we approached and my eyes zeroed in on one of them.

She was dressed similar to Scrapper 142 in armor with white markings on her face but she had the addition of a sparkling tiara in her hair that looked more like a twisted, razor sharp knife than a crown.

"This is-," the GrandMaster began.

"Kai," I finished for him. I couldn't believe she was alive. How long had she been here?

I couldn't take my eyes off of her as she moved towards me.

"Oh great, so you two know each o-." The GrandMaster started.

Kai slapped me hard across the face. "You bastard!"

I couldn't help but laugh, "okay, I deserved that." She hit me again, on the opposite cheek. "And probably that too."

"Oh there is more where that came from," she hissed.

"I bet there is," I purred.

Scrapper 142 came out of nowhere, standing behind Kai and staring me down. So, they were friends.

The GrandMaster looked extremely entertained. "Well, how do you two know each other?"

"We don't," I said.

"He's the one who stabbed me," Kai said at the same time.

The GrandMaster clapped, "oh this is brilliant, it's not every day that I get a Singer and her mate in my court."

I froze, shifting my eyes to the GrandMaster. *How does he know?* I sent to Kai but she ignored me.

"I say we kill him," Scrapper 142 suggested.

"I second that," Kai agreed.

The GrandMaster rubbed his chin, pondering. He finally waved a hand, "no, no. This...this is interesting. You two are going to play nice for a while until I decide how to proceed because I like both of you but I can't have the two of you trying to kill each other every day."

"What about just three times a week?" Kai said sweetly.

The GrandMaster patter her cheek, "you're precious. But, no. You two are going to get along or I'm putting you both in the arena."

Kai gritted her teeth but agreed.

"How could I say no to you," I said to the GrandMaster, giving him a winning smile.

"Oh stars above!" Kai exclaimed.

"This my dears, is going to be so much fun." The GrandMaster gave an unsettling smile.

 

***

Loki

 

The GrandMasters idea of 'fun' was putting us both in the same room. And not just a normal room but a honeymoon suite.

"No," Kai said, "no way! If you put me into this room with him, I'll just kill him."

The GrandMaster tutted, "well, I guess that means Kai volunteers for the arena."

Kai gritted her teeth, "looks like we're roommates now." She said to me. I was sure Kai could beat any measly gladiator that was put in the ring, so the champion must be incredibly fierce for Kai to avoid fighting him.

"Fantastic," the GrandMaster clapped, "once you two get...uh, reacquainted life can go back to normal."

He shut the door and I was immediately thrown up against the wall, a knife at my throat. "Now that we're alone," Kai hissed, "we can get a little intimate."

I started to laugh but she pressed the knife harder into my throat and cut me off. "How do you think I should do it?" She purred to me, "should I cut off your head, rip out your heart, or...." her blade dropped to my crotch, "feed a certain piece back to you and watch you choke on it."

I chuckled, "darling, you aren't going to kill me."

"Oh really?" She asked before driving her dagger into my side. I grunted in pain, realizing I probably deserved that.

I yanked the knife from my side, dropping it to the floor. "No, you aren't going to kill me."

She swung another knife at me and I rolled out of the way, blocking it with my own.

"I'll take great pleasure in killing you," She spat, launching herself at me, blades flying.

I sliced at her and she stumbled backwards to avoid the blade, slamming into a console with buttons on it.

The lights began to dim and we both froze, what was going on?

A tiny hologram of the GrandMaster appeared, "it's time to get funky!" He said and a poor rendition of Careless Whisper blasted from hidden speakers.

We exchanged a look and I couldn't help but smile. She glared at me before launching herself at me again.

We fought to the pitchy saxophone tune until she made the unfortunate choice of trying to kick me backwards. I grabbed her foot and threw her backwards onto the bed before I landed on top of her, pinning her hands down.

I stared down at her beneath me, breathing heavy with hair messed up. I flashed back to the kiss we had shared on the bride, the moment before I had tried to kill her. I had almost dropped the knife into the water behind us and forgotten it but that idea alone made me do it. She had too much control over me. Too much...

Her eyes flickered to my lips and I leaned down and kissed her. She was alive! And I couldn't be more happy that she was in front of me, even if she was trying to kill me.

It came as no surprise that after her initial shock wore off, she bit me.

I pulled back, my lip bleeding. I reached up to wipe the blood off and she threw me off of her, landing on top of me, knife posed to strike. This time I didn't fight her, she could kill me if she wanted, it was her choice.

I think she saw the fight die in my eyes because she paused, confused. "Why aren't you fighting back?"

I stared into her eyes, if those eyes were the last thing I saw I would die happy. "Because, I deserve your hatred. I tried to kill you. And I'll probably do it again so you might as well as eliminate me now."

We stared at each other, silent. The only noise our breathing and the last few notes of Careless Whisper.

"Next up we have twenty one different version of the song 'What's New Pussycat,'" the holographic GrandMaster announced. The song blasted loudly from the speakers. Kai raised a hand and used her magic to destroy the console without even looking.

The music faded out and all I could hear was our breathing. Kai still had the dagger raised to strike, "just tell me one thing before I kill you," she asked. "Why?" Her voice broke and she cleared her throat, "Why try to kill me?"

I blinked at her, wasn't it obvious? "Because I saw a world where you were my everything. I saw a future where all I needed to be happy was you. Not a crown, not a throne, not revenge. Just...you. And I knew that I would give up anything to have that future. So, before I could get too attached, I decided I had to kill you because the idea of having a weakness that was so obvious and so easy to exploit... well, it terrified me. I can't risk having you in my life because someone could easily control me by threatening you."

Kai stared at me, not knowing what to say.

I continued, she had asked for the truth and I wasn't going to die until I had given it to her. "But, it didn't work." I whispered, "after I thought I had killed you, I couldn't focus, I couldn't breathe. I debated throwing myself after you. It wasn't until after I had lost you that I realized that I lo-."

Kai swung the knife, burying it into the mattress beside my head. "Don't..." She panted, "don't finish that sentence."

We stared at each other before she swung off of me, reaching out a hand and pulling me to my feet. "I can't forgive you for trying to kill me... but, I know how you feel. So, I...respect you. It's hard to make a decision like that. I know I've had to do similar things."

I blinked at her, was she really forgiving me or was this some kind of trick to lull me into a false sense of security so she could stab me later?

Kai glanced out the window, the sun was barely setting. "I'm going out," she said. She threw a key card over her shoulder and it thudded onto the bed. "That's your key, don't lose it."

The door slammed shut and I was left alone in the sunset lit room. Kai was alive, and she hated me.

My heart ached at the thought but my mind was more logical. It was better this way. As long as she hated me, I could safely know that no one would use her against me.

I changed my clothes, wondering what Saakar had to offer in the form of nightlife. I needed something to distract me from Kai.

 

***

Kai

 

"I'm going out," I said, throwing the key at him, "that's your key. Don't lose it."

I stormed down the hallway, pissed off that he had tried to kill me and even more pissed that he had given me a logical reason for doing it.

I had landed on Saakar over eight months ago and had been living her ever since. The first three months were spent in a coma in the med bay due to the shard of Soul Eater Metal in my heart.

Brunnhilde eventually got it out of me and I woke up and learned exactly where I was and who ruled this place.

"My name is GrandMaster," he began, "I reign over a little something called the Contest Of Champions but don't worry, you're too pretty to put in the arena."

I studied him, there was something familiar about him. "I know you somehow," I finally caved after a month of trying to figure it out.

The GrandMaster smiled, "you do." I had gotten into his Inner Circle after a few...acrobatics of my own and was finally willing to ask him the question that had been plaguing me for a month. "To you I am known as En Dwi Gast."

I gasped, "the Lost Ancient One?"

The GrandMaster bowed, "the one and only."

"How did you get here?" I asked.

"Well, long story short. I was the only Ancient One to leave our people and join the humans when our world was split into two. Now, I live here." He gestured around as if to encompass the entire planet.

I opened my mouth to ask more questions but he cut me off. "Now, I know who you are. Queen Kaieada." He smirked, studying me. "The one and only Celestial Singer."

I nodded, "yes sir."

"You're cute," he adjusted his bathroom. "Call me GrandMaster."

I spent the next few months in the GrandMasters company. He was a lot smarter than he looked and knew things about me that he shouldn't. He had figured out I was mated pretty quickly although he didn't know to who and I intended to keep it that way.

I became friends with a Valkyrie, her name was Brunnhilde and we spent most of our days together.

I was actually enjoying my time in Saakar. The chaos was a welcome distraction from my problems at home, I picked up Brunnhilde's habit of drinking and forgetting and things seemed to be pretty okay. I mean sure, my mate had tried to kill me, my people were dying, my best friend was a dead genocidal maniac and I was stranded in a reality I didn't want to be in; but at least the alcohol was good.

So, when Loki showed up and my heart still jumped when he walked in, I couldn't help but try and kill him. He deserved it for trying to kill me.

I made my way to Brunnhilde's apartment, pounding on the door. She swung it open, her hair undone and the light behind her making her look like an angel. She didn't say anything, just passed me a bottle.

I uncorked it, swigging the contents and letting the fire roll down my throat. "Did you kill him yet?"

I shook my head, swallowing. "I decided not to."

"Why?" Brunnhilde honestly looked offended. "He stabbed you and put you in a coma for three months." Brunnhilde had been the one to get the shard out of me, she had sat by me for a while during my recovery.

"Well, for one; I don't want to piss off the GrandMaster and end up facing the Hulk."

"I'd bet my money on you."

"I've fought him before," I shivered, "I'd rather not." Brunnhilde didn't know much about my past but she was aware the Hulk and I knew each other. "And two, if I'm going to kill Loki, I'm going to do it when he least expects it, so that he can feel just as betrayed as I did when he put that dagger in my heart."

Brunnhilde nodded, "fair enough. How did you two even know each other?"

I went quiet, thinking about how to respond. Brunnhilde and I had a strict; present only policy. We trusted each other but didn't question each other about the past. If I didn't want to answer it, I didn't have too.

I decided I would answer her. "Where I come from, souls can be bound as one for eternity."

Brunnhilde cocked an eyebrow, "are you talking about soul mates?"

"Yes," I said with disgust. "I thought it was super stupid and didn't believe it and then..." I gestured out the window in the general direction of my new living quarters. "It happened."

"So, why did he try and kill you?"

I doubted Brunnhilde would get it. She'd never been in the position where she would do anything to get a throne. Loki's logic had made sense to me but I doubted it would make sense to her. "He said I was his only weakness and his enemies would use me against him so it was better to get rid of me before they could use me against him."

Brunnhilde blinked, "that's..."

"Crazy, I know," I replied, although, I didn't think he was that crazy. I had seen it happen, Arin had been about to kill Loki and I let the monster inside of me out. I risked the death of millions of people for him. If Arin had used him as a bargaining chip...I wasn't sure what I would do.

"Well, here's to crappy soul mates and dictators," she said, clicked her bottle with mine and chugging the entire thing in record time. I wasn't far behind her with my own.

"Oh, what am I going to do?" I sighed after a few hours of drinking and laughing, "I can't find a safe way off this planet and I don't want to piss off the GrandMaster - the only person who understands my people and my history - who is determined to see Loki and I complete our bond or whatever," I was drunk and rambling but maybe it would lead somewhere, "and now I'm living with my attempted murderer."

"How do you complete the bond?" Brunnhilde said from the floor where she was building a ridiculously long straw to drain the last of the vodka.

I gave her a look, "sex."

Brunnhilde choked on her vodka, "really?"

"Right?" I sighed, "that's not going to happen anytime soon."

"Why is the GrandMaster so set on you two completing your bond?"

"Because I'm the only Celestial Singer in existence and everyone wanted to know how well I'd breed, and if my powers would pass down and... other stuff." I waved a hand, not caring to remember it. "I assume he's the same."

"Or he's just overly invested in your relationship, it wouldn't be the first time," Brunnhilde drained the last of our alcohol and threw it against the wall where a large pile of shattered glass already sat. "Well, now we have to buy more." She stood up, "come on."

"No," I wailed, "I don't wanna."

Brunnhilde held out her hand to pull me to my feet, "you helped me drink it, you gotta help me buy it."

I groaned but accepted her hand, I kept holding it as we moved down the hallway. "You know after drinking all of that, I think I'm starting to feel it?" I laughed, "in my fingertips."

"Well, you're slurring your words a little." Brunnhilde replied, "which is a first, usually you have a higher tolerance."

"It's the stress," I shrugged. "Can't we just buy everything tomorrow?"

"It's literally down the street Kai," Brunnhilde rolled her eyes, "I think you can make it."

She was correct, I did manage to make it too the store and back to her apartment. I don't remember much about the rest of the night but I woke up on the floor, half the drinks we had bought last night gone.

I had a killer headache and the sun was much to bright. I groaned and shadow traveled to my old room only to realize it wasn't my room anymore. I tried to picture my new room and manage to shadow travel too the front door where I knocked over an ornament vase and it shattered on the floor, "shhh," I told it.

I slid my card in the door and walked in to find that the curtains had been blissfully drawn over the windows. I blinked in the welcome dim lighting. The bed was still made from yesterday and the bathroom door was open and no noises echoed from within.

Thank the stars, I was alone.

It was early morning and nothing in Saakar started until the late afternoon so I had time to sleep off my headache before the day got really started. I climbed into the shower, making sure the door was double locked. I changed into sleep clothes and collapsed into the bed, curling up and falling asleep.

 

***

Kai

 

I woke up to a beam of sunlight hitting me in the face from the partially open drape. I used my magic to try and close it but it simply swung back.

So, I was buying new curtains today.

I rolled over, only to hit into a wall of pillows. I blinked, raising my head up to see Loki on the other side of the pillow wall. Did I do that or did he?

I squinted at the space on both sides, the prick had more space on his side. I debated on kicking him off the bed but he looked exhausted so instead I began to gently push the pillows towards him, he shifted and moved over and I added a few extra inches to my side.

I was comfortable like that for a while but then I decided I wanted more of the covers so I yanked gently on them, pulling them my way. I also moved the pillows over a little more, stealing the space before laying down to sleep some more. I had a little time before I had to leave.

Just as I was getting comfortable, a pillow hit me in the head. "Stop stealing my space," I heard Loki groan.

"Hey!" I pulled the pillow off of my head and hit him in the face with it. "Don't throw pillows at me."

"Relax, it didn't hurt. It wasn't like I stabbed you or anything," he said, his lips quirking up in a smile.

I couldn't help but laugh, he raised a fair point. His eyes opened and we made eye contact. I couldn't help but catch my breath, I had never seen him in bed before and it made me think about the visions I had had about him and I.

I leaned against the pillow wall between us as he turned towards me and propped up on his elbow, "what did you do last night?" He asked.

I smirked, "are we doing small talk now? Is that what this is?" I rolled over, getting up. "If I wasn't so tired, I might just stab you for being in the same bed as me."

"Well, there's only one bed and I put up a very sturdy wall of pillows." He said; too prove his point, he chucked one at me.

I caught the throw pillow, giving him a murderous look. "I'm going to change, did the GrandMaster tell you what was going on today?" 

"Yes," Loki said, "we're going to have cocktails in an hour, then we're sponsoring new contenders and then we bet on them and then they slaughter themselves for fun."

"Don't forget the after party." I said, smirking, rummaging around in my closet. The after party would take place on his ship, The Commodore, a.... leisure vessel. I held up different dresses in front of the mirror, debating on which one I wanted to wear.

I had a few options; my normal armour, a few of the casual outfits I had or the more appropriate Sakaaran women's wear which depending on the occasion was fully covering or no cover.

It depended on how much I wanted to make Loki squirm.

I glanced in the mirror to see him watching me. "What?" I asked.

Loki seemed to snap out whatever thought was occupying him. "Nothing," he said, forcing a smile. "I assume you'll want privacy," he stood up, "I'll be downstairs in the lounge, I'll see you later."

He left the room and I actually missed him. I shook myself, no, he tried to kill me and I was thinking about killing him.

I decided it would be the perfect day to make him squirm.

I rooted through my closet, picking out the two most revealing dresses I owned. I hummed to myself as I changed into one of them, feeling mischievous. Maybe this new arrangement wouldn't be so bad after all.

I could slowly torture him before I got around to killing him.

 

***

 

I planned my entrance well; arriving just after the GrandMaster did, causing him to call out to me.

"Kai! Where've you been?" He shouted into the mic, holding out his hand for me. "Everyone, my favorite queen is here," he said, pointing to the tiara he had given me. "And doesn't she look stunning tonight! A one, a two, a one, two, three, four!" He began to pluck away at the piano and everyone cheered his limited music skills.

I knew Loki was staring at me but I avoided him, making my way over to Brunnhilde who was drinking alone at the bar. "Isn't it a little early for vodka?" I asked, picking up the shot she was about to do and drowning it myself.

Her eyes studied my outfit, "nice dress." I cocked my head in the direction of Loki and that was all the answer she needed. "You evil little prick," she shook her head, grinning. "You're going to have him by the balls in no time."

I grinned, "that's the idea. It'll be so much easier to kill him that way." I winked before making my way around the room, talking to everyone, flirting with everyone and dancing with everyone but him.

There was honestly no reason for me to be this petty but I was enjoying it. Sakaar was really bringing out the worst in me, I hadn't done something like this in a while. Not since Ayla, Evan, Vin and I had gone out on the still standing town.

The GrandMaster found me a few minutes later, "you're being a little minx today, aren't you?" He said, his eyes flicking between Loki and I.

"I don't know what you mean," I said, passing him a cup of champagne from a tray and grabbing one for myself.

"You know, usually when I try to set two people up they don't fight it for this long," he replied. "You two are proper entertainment."

"Why even care?" I asked, dancing to the music.

"Well, when you're my age dear, you find the pleasure in the little things," he replied. His eyes flickered to someone behind me, I knew it was Loki. "Speaking of pleasure," he wiggled his eyebrows, "I'll be right over there, just within earshot." The GrandMaster left and I turned to see Loki behind me.

His eyes roamed over me, drinking me in. "You look nice," he finally said.

"Thanks," I replied. I let the silence stretch, making him do the talking.

"Please tell me you aren't planning in staying in that the rest of the day," he asked.

I smirked, "no, I got another dressed planned for the after party tonight." His confusion made it aware to me that he had no idea what the GrandMaster's after parties entailed. Hadn't he prodded into someone's mind yet?

I sent an image of the dress I had planned for tonight and I received a scalding look from him. "Dance with me," his words tumbled out of him and I knew he hadn't planned it.

I thought about the last two times we had danced. Once on a plane and once in a club like this. But this time, there wasn't anything in the club to distract us. No other commitments.

I debated on my answer, I wanted to dance with him. I wanted to be in his arms again and feel his lips on my skin and his hands on my body. I wanted to see just exactly how quickly this night could go from good to great.

I swallowed, opening my mouth to give a reply, although I wasn't even really sure if I was going to say 'yes' or 'no' when someone closed a hand around my arm, "sorry, she belongs with me."

I turned to give a glare at whatever idiotic male had had the audacity to decide who I belonged to. It was some beefy champion who had been beaten by the Hulk but was still favored by the GrandMaster and sometimes hung around. He had a stupid cocky grin plastered across his face like I was supposed to thank him for saving me.

I heard Loki growl but I put a hand up. *I got this.*

I yanked my hand from his grasp, "I belong to myself, thank you very much. And don't touch me again."

The champion, who's name I didn't bother remembering, looked confused. "But, sweetheart, you've been flirting with me all night. And, I mean you're dress...," his eyes roamed over me but it wasn't a welcome gaze, it didn't feel like how Loki's felt, "how can you blame me?"

I narrowed my eyes, my long feminism debates I had had with MJ coming back to the surface, "I haven't been flirting with you and if you don't leave me alone, I'll make sure you're kicked out into the Dump without a second glance from the GrandMaster." I let my eyes turn black, daring him to challenge me. When that didn't seem to work, I picked the most grotesque decaying hologram I could and let it flicker over me.

"HOLY HELL!" He shouted, moving away from me. "Get away from me you zombie freak!"

I couldn't help but bust out laughing and Loki joined in. I felt his anger towards the old champion and knew he was debating on killing him. It was an overprotective mate thing. "I bet you wanted to kill him."

"For touching you?" Loki asked, stepping closer to me to be heard over the pounding music. "I would have ripped him to pieces."

I stepped a little closer, moving into dangerous territory. "And what if I had wanted him to touch me?"

Loki hesitated, his overprotective instinct warring with his logic. "You don't belong to me," he said, although the words seemed to come difficult. "So, you can do what you want."

I studied him, liking him a little more for saying that. "The bond thinks we belong to each other."

"The bond is wrong," Loki smirked, "considering the fact that we've tried to kill each other several times."

I smiled, "I guess for that answer you get to earn a dance." I let him lead me to the floor, I Had timed it perfectly because a slow song was playing. I thought this dance would be the most innocent, the easiest to walk away from afterwards but I had underestimated our bond.

Our hands wrapped around each other, mine laid on his shoulder and his laid on my bare back. I felt goosebumps appear on my arms as the pads of his fingers traced over my skin, exploring all the sections my dress had left bare.

We didn't talk much, letting our bodies do the speaking. I pressed my body against his, letting his hands roam over my bare skin and I closed my eyes to keep them from rolling in my head, I was getting what I wanted; skin to skin, physical contact but I wanted more.

But, I couldn't have it. The GrandMaster's determination to officially bond us for eternity was freaking me out, there was a piece of the puzzle missing and I wanted to figure out what it was before I made any decisions.

"Where are you staying tonight?" He asked me, his words catching and I knew he probably wasn't planning on asking me.

I swallowed; I could claim the room and kick him out, I could go to Brunnhilde's or I could stay in it with him. The last option was both the best and worst option out of the three. "I'm going to Scrapper 142's." Brunnhilde didn't want everyone to know her name, and I assumed she especially didn't want another Asgardian to know it.

Loki nodded but didn't answer.

The song ended and I pulled away, stepping back. Before I could say anything, the GrandMaster made an announcement. "The Contest of Champions is about to begin, please, make your bets," he waved his hand and on the far wall images appeared of all the contenders.

These next two weeks were a lead up to the championship where people would fight to see who would face off against the champion. Everyone was making brackets and whoever got the closest would win 100 million units and a place in the GrandMasters Inner Circle.

I built my bracket, Loki was close by me and I couldn't help but feel drawn to him. When people crowded around us, I moved closer to him. His hand went out to touch my lower back, pulling me in front of him so I wasn't being jostled around.

One of his hands stayed on my hip while he filled out his own bracket and I was too distracted by his hand to properly fill out my own bracket.

The Contest began and The GrandMaster had his closest friends (and enemies) in his private box. Since I was theoretically a queen, I was allowed a spot on the front row couch. Loki was also sitting on the far side from me and the GrandMaster.

We kept shooting glances at each other and eventually, I forced myself to focus on the fighting although it held little entertainment for me.

I heard a shrill giggle and turned to see some women flirting with Loki. He was smiling at her and had his hand on her thigh. A spark of jealousy shot through me and suddenly, the girl had vanished.

My eyes widened, I hadn't even realized what I had done. I flicked my fingers and she appeared again, looking terrified before racing off.

I turned my gaze away, leaning forwards to watch the fights. The GrandMaster chuckled beside me and I felt Loki's annoyance in my mind.

As the night wore on, I got bored with the people around me and eventually decided I was just going to skip the after party. I was not in the mood to be in an orgy today.

As the fights ended and people in the box started to move around, I vanished in the chaos, shadow traveling back to my new room.

I changed and curled up on the unmade bed, grabbing a book on the nightstand and burying myself in it. I felt my body relaxing, it had been a while since I had taken time to simply be alone with my thoughts.

I read for most of the night until I was interrupted by giggling and someone fumbling for the door lock. I felt Loki's magic reach out and pause when he sensed me in the room.

"Looks like this is where we part," I heard him say.

"Why can't I go inside?" A whiny voice replied and the door opened and Loki came stumbling in, a girl having swung open the door behind him. Her eyes landed on me and recognition dawned on her face before she stalked off, adjusting her clothes as she went.

Loki closed the door, "I thought you were at Scrapper 142's?"

I shrugged, "I changed my mind."

"The GrandMaster was very disappointed you missed his after party. He says you have to be at the next one or he'll put you in the arena."

I sighed, "that threat is getting old." I ran my fingers through my hair, "well, I'm going to bed."

"Hold on a sec," Loki held up a hand and I paused. "You can't just go vanishing people who are flirting with me."

I shrugged, "sorry, it was an accident. I brought her back didn't I?"

"Yes but my first instinct is to kill any man who looks at you and I manage to keep accidents from happening," Loki said, "so I would appreciate the same respect and courtesy on your part."

"Fair enough," I replied, "it won't happen again."

"Thank you," he said, moving to the bathroom. "You're staying here tonight?"

"I am," I flicked off the light and curled up underneath the covers. I heard him moving around the bathroom and felt the bed dip as he climbed in a second later, staying on his side of the pillows. I tried to act like I was sleeping but I think he knew I wasn't.

 

***

Loki

 

I hadn't slept well the night before since Kai had been so close to me. I woke early the next morning, before anyone else in Sakaar would be awake. I rolled over, staring at the face of my sleeping mate. Kai looked peaceful when she slept, the stress from her life faded while she slept.

I pushed down the urge to trace her face with my fingertips and instead rolled from bed, knowing I couldn't get back to sleep now. I morphed into exercise clothes, if I couldn't sleep then I might as well as work.

The gym was empty when I arrived which was no surprise to me. No one in Sakaar was up before noon.

I began to punch and kick at dummies and slice at them with my knives. I was used to practicing on living people so it wasn't very entertaining for me. I wondered if someone else on the entire planet was awake and wanted to spar.

A second later my wish was granted when I felt Kai's surprise behind me. I felt her turn to leave, probably trying to escape.

"Kai," I called out, turning. "Come and spar with me."

"Uh," she said, stepping further into the room. "That's okay."

I smirked, "I think I can keep my hands to myself." I threw one of my knives across the room and she caught it easily, twirling it in her hands.

She smirked, "that's not what I was worried about." She shadow traveled across the room to land directly in front of me. "I was worried about hurting your ego when I beat you."

"Oh really?" I swiped my dagger at her and she caught it on the edge of hers.

The challenge alighted in her eyes and I smiled as she knocked my dagger back. We began to twirl around the room, slicing and dicing at each other, a blur to anyone watching.

She tried to do the move she had used on me on the roof where she threw her dagger upwards, kicked me over and then landed on top of me but this time I was ready for her.

When she threw her dagger upwards and went to kick me, I jumped backwards, grabbing her dagger from the air and pointed them both at her.

She cocked her fists, "bring it on babe."

I smirked, launching myself at her, watching as she dodged the blades. I knew I was holding back because I didn't want to hurt her and I knew she knew that I was holding back.

"Come on," she challenged me, "I have accelerated healing for a reason."

I grinned, launching at her with the blades again, this time aiming to hurt. I sliced her arm and felt her pain and I slowed down. She used my momentary distraction to whip out with her magic, wrapping my arm with her magic and pulling me towards her.

I stumbled and grabbed her as I fell, pulling her down on top of me. I put my two blades up to meet her throat, "looks like I win."

She started to laugh, reaching up to pull her hair down. "I guess you do."

She looked to gorgeous, I sat up on my elbows, getting closer to her since she was straddling me. Her eyes flickered to my lips and I wanted to kiss her again.

I think she noticed the mood shift in my eyes because she froze, "Loki."

"Yes?" I purred, loving the sound of my name on her lips. I reached up and intertwined my fingers in her hair.

There was no one here to interrupt us.

Kai seemed to decide against whatever she was going to say and leaned down towards me, I leaned up, determined to meet my lips with here.

"Hey," Scrapper 142's voice echoed around the room and Kai yanked back from me, turning to stare at her friend. "I thought we were going out this morning," she asked, glancing between me and Kai.

Kai put a hand to her forehead, "right, let's go." Kai rolled off of me, "uh, bye," she said before racing from the room.

I sighed from my position on the floor before getting to my feet and trying to forget what had happened this morning.

 

***

Kai

 

"Perfect timing," I said to Brunnhilde as we left. "Did you find anything out last night?"

She shook her head, "The GrandMaster is pretty tight lipped about why he wants you two together but I can assume its for some selfish reason."

"We just have to find out what it is," I said, "until then I have to avoid Loki."

"He has a private study he uses, we could break in there?" Brunnhilde suggested in a whisper.

"We could," I hesitated, "I just don't want to get caught."

"I doubt he'd punish you. Besides, you could always blame it on Loki."

"Good point."

We debated on the best way to get into his office for the rest of the day, and I spent the day with Brunnhilde, drinking and playing stupid games on the roof of her apartment building.

I managed to avoid Loki for the rest of the day and the rest of the next day as well. "Are you coming to the GrandMaster's Half Birthday party today?" I asked.

"No, not this time," she smirked, "after getting drunk and killing his favorite cat, I've been banned from the Commodore."

I laughed, "alright, I'm going to change. The GrandMaster requires me at all his parties now after I skipped the last one."

"Try and find out what he wants!" Brunnhilde shouted after me and I waved in response before appearing back in my room.

Loki was changing his armor in front of the mirror and jumped when I entered. He was almost fully dressed except for his shirt and I couldn't help but admire his muscles.

I sighed, going to the closet and picking out an outfit to wear before I locked myself into the bathroom.

I quickly changed, finding Loki waiting for me outside. "Can I escort you?" He asked, holding out his arm for me.

I crossed my arms, "before we go, we need rules."

Loki raised an eyebrow, "what did you have in mind?"

"We need to avoid each other and whoever we happen to be with," I said, "so we don't accidentally kill anyone."

Loki nodded his agreement and I let him escort me to the Commodore. The party was already in full swing, the lights dim and bodies were everywhere; withering and dancing to the flickering lights.

Loki and I exchanged glances before breaking off, going to opposite ends of the very small ship.

I tried not to look for him but I could see him every once in a while, head thrown back and eyes wide with pleasure and I couldn't help but wonder if I could make him have the same look on his face.

I spent the rest of the night looking for a distraction but I never found it, not when my mate was so close and yet so far from me.

 

***

Kai

 

I groaned, waking up on the hard floor of the ship. People were scattered around me, in various stages of undress. I sat up, automatically looking for Loki. I found him leaning against the wall, asleep.

I left the ship and went back to my room. It was too early for Brunnhilde to be awake so I showered to pass the time.

When I got out, I found Loki, freshly showered. He must have stopped by someone else's room. I pushed down my jealousy.

"Good job not vanishing anyone to another realm last night," Loki smirked.

"Nice job not killing anyone," I added.

We stood in silence for a second. "What do you have planned for today?"

Brunnhilde and I had plans but I wasn't sure if I was going to include Loki in them. I decided I would. "Scrapper 142 and I have a theory," I began, "that the GrandMaster has some sort of ulterior motive to getting us together."

"Like what?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out," I said, "we're breaking into his private study today." A thought dawned on me, "do you want to distract him?"

"Breaking into his quarters is punishable by death," Loki said, "and I prefer to not be an accomplice in your schemes. So, no, I don't think I will."

I rolled my eyes, "fine." I turned to leave the room, "but if you tell him what we're up too, I'll kill you."

"I wouldn't dream of it."

I found Brunnhilde passed out at a bar, just waking up. "Come on, we got a job to do," I said, "I need you to distract the GrandMaster while I break into his office," I whispered.

"On it," we had woken up early and the GrandMaster was still asleep on his ship so it was the perfect time to break into his office. "Let me know if he gets off his ship," I said before shadow traveling into his office.

Instead of finding an empty private study, I was greeted by the GrandMaster sitting at his desk, feet propped up and waiting for me.

"Ah!" I jumped in surprise.

"Kai, Kai, Kai," The GrandMaster tisked, "a little birdie told me that you were going to make your way to my office today," he was in the middle of doing his nails. "And I decided to wait for you."

"Who told you?" I said narrowing my eyes.

"It wasn't your mate, don't worry. I just have my ways of knowing things," he said, carefully painting his pinky nail.

"Are you here to kill me?"

"Kill you?" The GrandMaster laughed, "of course not. I'm here to answer your question." He pointed to a thick open book on his desk, "there, read it."

I approached his desk cautiously, it was an old book, a book that I recognized. "The Lost Book of Prophecy!" I gently touched the pages, no one had seen this in generations.

"Read it," the GrandMaster gestured with the brush, "oh damn it, I smudged it!" He said, going back to his nails.

I leaned over the book, reading the prophecy. My eyebrows shot up, "is this supposed to be about Loki and me?"

The GrandMaster nodded, blowing on his nails. "It is, I would know cause I was there when it was written. The prophecy foretells a great evil that will destroy the universe and a might group of people who will stop it, the group will be lead by a mated couple whose love spreads across dimensions."

I snorted, "you do realize Loki and I had tried to kill each other, right?"

"The mating bond signifies love and you both are leaders from two realities that are destined to one day be joined as one. Your coupling is...poetic." The GrandMaster finished, "without you two getting along, our two worlds will slowly deteriorate. Yours already is," he said.

"Are you saying I'm destined to return the two worlds together and also stop a great evil from destroying this one?" I sighed, "why am I in so many prophecies?"

The GrandMaster shrugged, "you might not like it but it is inevitable. You two will complete the bond and save us all." He got up, "ew, enough with the seriousness. It's time to prepare for a party! The final championship begins in a few days and we have to have a ceremony to honor the Hulk!"

"Will he be there?"

"Goodness no, he's too big to fit," The GrandMaster said, "besides, I have an especially fun evening planned." That made me nervous.

I shadow travelled from the room, finding Brunnhilde on a roof, watching the sleeping figure of a GrandMaster in the ship. "That's a decoy body," I told her, "he was waiting for me in the study."

Brunnhilde threw the bottle she had just emptied off the roof, "sometimes I forget how powerful he is." I relayed all the information I had discovered too her. "So, you're part of a prophecy?"

"Yep."

"That sucks."

"Yep."

We spent the rest of the day playing drinking games on her ship and hunting down new contenders for the games. That was how we both made most of our money and with my mind powers, it was especially helpful.

I left for my rooms to change for the Contest of Champions and whatever terrible party the GrandMaster had planned this time.

Loki escorted me again but this time I sat next to him on the couch to watch the fights. We kept up a mental stream of comments in our heads, making fun of the fighters and commenting about how we would do better.

I shifted closer to him as the night went on and only as the final fight drew closer, I realized his hand was on my thigh and the other was draped around my shoulders. I should've probably pulled away but instead, I shifted a little closer, leaning into him. He didn't protest.

The fights ended and the night was done, at least that's what we thought. But, the GrandMaster had planned a surprise party.

The room was dimly lit, draped alcoves with sheer curtains lined one wall. A garden had been built off of the side of one of the balconies and people were milling around already.

This was a different scene than usual. Lights came on behind the sheer curtains and silhouettes of people having sex could be seen. Kai's eyes widened, "oh no," she groaned as the GrandMaster rolled out on a large bed, already engaging in several sexual activities.

He pointed to the two of us, and I got his meaning clear enough. I telepathically gave Loki a run down on the events of the prophecy.

*Really?* He asked, *that's why he's doing this.*

*Yep.*

We stuck together, avoiding the wall of bodies and the bed in the center of the room. A tiny alcove was sitting up high in the wall and I decided that was where I would hide for the rest of the evening.

Before I could make it there, the spotlights found Loki and I talking to a group of people in the far corner. "You two," the GrandMaster sang, "we've all felt it. We all know it. It's time to be our spotlight couple for the evening."

We exchanged looks and both came up with the same plan a second later. "Oh, alright!" I called out and Loki and I began to make our way to the bed.

Or rather, holograms of the two of us made our way to the bed. The real Loki and I scaled the wall, hidden in magic, and sat on the edge of the scaffold that was holding up the drapes. I conjured snacks from the bar, passing him a bag of chips.

I turned my back on what was happening below, leaning back against a steel beam and facing him, he was doing something similar across from me and we sat on the thin ledge. His hand came up to rest on my leg and I leaned against his legs, we were getting easier at the casual touching thing. I didn't know if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

I glanced below to see our two holograms going at it before turning back to him. "Maybe this will get the GrandMaster off of our asses."

"Hopefully," Loki replied. We sat in comfortable silence for a while, eating chips and drinking.

I shifted on the beam, tilting sideways and spread my wings to keep from falling off. Loki reached out and gripped my forearm to help steady me. His eyes strayed to my golden wings, glowing softly casting us both in a golden sheen. "Can I touch them?" He asked.

I nodded, maneuvering them to wrap closer to us, almost enclosing us in their wingspan. His fingers reached up and trailed down the side of them, softly.

I couldn't stop the shiver that raced through me, it had been a long time since someone had touched my wings like that.

"Does it feel good?" Loki asked.

"Yeah," I croaked, clearing my throat. 

Loki grinned, mischievously. He ran his fingers from the top of my wings to the base of it, teasing with his fingers. I swallowed back a moan, feeling the heat run through my body and goosebumps appeared on my arms.

Loki chuckled, leaning closer to me. "How does that feel?" He asked, his hands spreading out on my wings.

I caught my breath, "good." I replied although that was a lie, it felt amazing.

He was so close to me, it would be so easy to kiss him. So easy to close that gap between us. His eyes flickered to my lips but he hesitated, probably thinking about how I bit him last time.

*Kiss me, damn it,* I thought and when his mouth quirked up in a smile, I realized I had telepathically said it to him.

*What do you say?*

"Please," I said allowed and wrapped my wings around the both of us as he leaned forward and met his lips with mine.

The rush of desire and pleasure between us was almost instantaneous. He reached out and swung me into his lap, gripping my legs tightly as his mouth explored mine. One of his hands reached up, playing with the edge of my wing and I pulled back long enough to moan his name.

His hands stilled before returning with vigor, "say my name again," he whispered.

I complied, letting his name fall from my lips like a prayer and I heard him growl. His tongue clashed with mine and it was a dance of tongue and teeth for a while, both of us ripped at the other, too crazy with desire to be gentle.

He pulled back for air and my lips trailed on his neck, biting and kissing their way downwards. "Kai," he moaned my name and it almost undid me.

I looked up into his face to find him gazing back at me, panting. I could see exactly what he wanted in his eyes and I wanted the same thing. I needed it. He reached up to pull my shirt over my head but something knocked on my wings.

"Don't think I didn't notice your little trick Kai..." The GrandMaster's voice echoed just outside. I let my wings furrow back and he stared at our heated faces and the placement of our hands. "Oh oops, well, don't let me interrupt." He turned and left, climbing down from the scaffold.

I couldn't help but laugh, "I never thought he'd sabotage his own plan." Loki's lips found mine again and I gripped the collar of his shirt before shadow traveling us to the door outside our room.

He pressed me back against the door, fumbling for the lock, I let one of my legs snake around his waist, kissing his chest and neck.

The door opened and we stumbled inside, Loki turned, pushing me back up against the wall and pulling my other leg around his waist, hoisting me up where he wanted me.

"Wait," I managed to gasp out, tilting my head away from his lips, "hold on."

Loki reluctantly stopped, "yes?" He asked, his hands trailing up and down my legs.

I swallowed, I needed to focus. "I forgot that you don't know," I began, "if we do this, we'll be bonded forever. The shields between our minds will blur even more, we'll be able to feel each other's heartbeats, we'll be able to use each others powers."

Loki frowned, "are you saying I'll become a Celestial?"

"Sort of," I honestly didn't know how to explain it, I had simply seen it happening around me. To my knowledge, no one had ever mated with someone who wasn't a Silene or a Singer so I didn't know what would happen. "You'll be able to tap into my powers and use them in emergencies. I just want you to know what you're getting into."

Loki studied me, still pressing me back against the wall. "Okay," he replied and his lips returned to mine.

My eyebrows shot up in surprise but I kissed him back. I thought he'd turn me down because he didn't want me to be his weakness. I pulled back again, "are you sure you understand?" I said again, "we'll be bonded even more than we are now. If you were worried about me being a weakness before, then I'll become an even greater weakness for you now."

"Kai," Loki purred, his hands moving on my body, "do you want me to stop?"

"No," I whimpered, "I just wanted you to be sure." My hands gripped his shoulders, I was losing my slip on reality again. But this time, Loki knew what he was getting into.

"I'm sure," he whispered before his lips met with mine again. He teleported us across the room to land on the bed.

The rest of the night was something I would never forget, everything was heightened, my mate knew exactly what I wanted and I knew exactly what he wanted. His name fell from my lips just as often as mine fell from his.

The sun was rising before we collapsed back on the bed, our fingers lazily tracing each others bodies.

Loki's eyes glinted, "you're beautiful."

"So are you," I replied, leaning over him and kissing him. He pulled me down on top of him and we started all over again.


	6. Chapter Six

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All telepathic communication is marked with *asterisks*

Loki

 

The GrandMaster didn't have anything planned for the next day so we spent the entire day in bed.

After a few hours of... physical activities, Kai turned to me with a sly smile on her face. Norns, she was beautiful.

"You know, now that we're officially mated, there's something we can do that we couldn't do before," she began.

"Like what?" I asked, running my fingers through her hair.

She smirked and I felt her magic caress the borders around my mind. I frowned at her, let me in. She prodded and I opened up, letting her inside, although I kept my thoughts locked away still.

*Do the same to me,* she commanded and I reached out for her mind and found her mind open to me, letting me twist around the core of her. I couldn't read her mind but I could feel her everywhere. I assumed she was having a similar experience because she smiled and closed her eyes, basking in the feeling of me everywhere.

I felt her hand move across my chest, down towards my stomach and my eyes widened when I realized her physical hands hadn't moved, she was doing it with her mental powers. Although it felt so real.

"Do that again," I said, reaching out with my own mind to trail a mental hand down her bare back. I could feel her and I could feel the desire building inside her, I felt her emotions like I was feeling my own emotions. Her heart began to pound beside mine and it matched my beats perfectly, I touched my chest in wonder, awed that I could feel both of our heartbeats.

*Now that we're mated, we can do this,* she explained to me, running a mental hand through my hair. My heart rate sped up and she smirked, able to feel it like I could feel her own.

My eyes rolled in my head and I reached out with my mental powers, running my hands over her and doing things I couldn't normally do physically. She moaned and it was music to my ears.

We spent the next few hours experimenting, testing the new mental bond between us. "What happens if we have sex and do this mental thing at the same time?" I asked, cocking my eyebrow.

She smirked, "why don't we find out." Our world narrowed to just the two of us again and I pulled her towards me, my lips exploring her own.

I didn't think I could ever get tired of this.

***

After two days in bed, the GrandMaster was getting a little fed up with our absence from everything. Eventually, we had to do other things.

Kai stood up, stretching, the muscles on her back flexing, and I almost pulled her back into bed. She turned to stare at me, her eyes lazily roaming over me. "Try not to kill anyone today love," she said, moving towards the closet.

I followed her, spinning her around until she was pressed against the wall. I pressed against her and she kissed my chest, running her hands between us. The GrandMaster could wait.

We pushed our luck until Topaz herself was banging on the door, "come on Trash Heaps. The GrandMaster demands your presence at today's tournament."

We made our way down to the lounge, although some part of our bodies was touching at all times. I was trying to be inconspicuous but I wasn't sure it was working, I wanted her. I needed her. For a minute, I panicked. This bond was intense, I hadn't been prepared for it. She had warned me but I hadn't realized how serious it was. I wanted to protect her well being, it was ingrained into the fabric of my very soul. I realized I would die for her. Kill for her. She had successfully wrapped me around her finger.

*It's normal,* her voice came to my mind, *the frenzy. Newly mated mates can't keep their hands off of each other.*

*I've noticed,* I replied, running a hand down her back before taking a step away from her as we entered the busy room.

The tiny meter of separation between us was almost painful. All eyes were on us and I wanted to kill anyone for even looking at her.

*It'll be okay,* her voice came to my mind. *They aren't going to hurt me.*

I realized I was being overly protective. I tried to back off. Norns, I hated this.

I threw myself into conversation, trying to distract myself from her perfect form beside me. I realized she was doing something similar, we were almost completely ignoring each other.

Brunnhilde entered the room and Kai moved off to the bar to talk to her, I kept an eye - both mental and physically- on her but it was a good thing we could still move about the room freely. We weren't glued to each other.

I started to tell a story, although I was mildly distracted. I saw the GrandMaster enter across the room, some poor contender locked in a chair.

"And then, I let go." I finished with a flourish and everyone laughed.

"Loki? LOKI!" My smile faded as I recognized a voice I knew all too well. I stood up, staring at my brother who was attached to the contender chair, how had I not noticed him before?

I laughed to the crowd around me, "excuse me, one second."

"SHHH!" I said, making my way over after excusing myself. "You're alive?" Kai was talking to Brunnhilde, leaving me to deal with Thor alone. I saw her glance over but she didn't move from her position at the bar, studying the situation and decided how best to react.

"Yes, of course I'm alive!" Thor replied.

I honestly thought he had been killed by Hela. Why else would he have not landed with me on Sakaar two weeks ago? "What are you doing here?" I asked, honestly wanting to know.

"What do you mean 'what am I doing here'? I'm stuck in this stupid chair, where's your chair?" Thor asked.

"I didn't get a chair." I whispered back, what the hell was I going to do with him?

"Well, get me out of this one." Thor demanded.

"I can't." I also didn't want to.

"Get me out!"

"I can't. I made friends with this man called the GrandMaster," I whispered.

"Are you crazy?"

"I've gained his favor. The bifrost spat me out here weeks ago."

"Weeks ago? I only just got here?" Now I was even more confused.

"What are you whispering about?" The GrandMaster had rolled his piano close to us and Thor jumped. I wondered if he had heard us but his next comment, confirmed that he had heard our conversation. "Time works real different around these parts, on any other world I'd be like millions of years old but here on Sakaar..." He glanced at me and I couldn't think of anything to say. He was flirting with me and I knew I should respond but Thor was sitting right there and we didn't need to have this conversation right now. "In any case," The GrandMaster continued before the silence got too long. "You know this - uh,you call yourself Lord of Thunder?"

"God of Thunder. Tell him."

I had to come up with a plan, and quickly. "I've never met this man in my life." Probably not my best plan.

"He's my brother." Thor immediately contradicted.

"Adopted."

"Is he any kind of a fighter?" The GrandMaster asked me.

Before I could answer, Thor cut in. "You take this thing out of my neck and I'll show you." This wasn't going to end well.

The GrandMaster seemed more amused than scared. "Oh, listen to that he's threat-threatening me. Hey sparkles, here's the deal. You wanna get back to Ass-burg, Ass-guard."

"ASGARD!"

"Any contender who defeats my champion, their freedom they shall win." That wasn't necessarily true, but I wasn't going to contradict the GrandMaster.

"Fine then point me in the direction of whoever's ass I have to kick!"

"That's what I call contender. Direction would be this way Lord," The GrandMaster started to roll off with Thor's chair, leaving me blissfully alone again.

"Ah, LOKI!"

I felt Kai before I saw her, she put her hand on my arm, coming up to stand beside me. I put my hand over hers, bringing her fingers up to kiss them. "Why is Thor here?"

"It doesn't matter, he's stuck here, just like the rest of us." I said, "although he's ruined everything. Now we won't have peace with him here."

Kai frowned, "Loki, what aren't you telling me."

I forced a smile, "nothing." I didn't want to think about Hela, or anything happening on Asgard right now. It was pointless to fight such a powerful being.

Although, now that Kai was alive we might have a chance... No! I pushed the thought down, I didn't want her getting in any unnecessary danger.

When I had a free minute, I visited Thor in his cell but he was useless. He simply wanted to be miserable and put all the blame on me. Which wasn't wholly unreasonable since I did release the Goddess of Death.

I debated on telling Kai about what was happening but I assumed she would want to save Asgard. She held a special place for it in her heart because it reminded her of a home once lost.

Kai and I took our time getting ready for the fight tonight. "You'll finally get to see who the GrandMaster's champion is," she smirked, as if she knew something I didn't.

"What are you hiding from me?" I asked, pushing her up against the wall and kissing her neck.

"Nothing," she squealed, trying to get away from me.

I hummed, "maybe I'll just have to force it out of you." I continued to kiss her but she pulled away, I sighed in annoyance.

"Come on, we have to go."

We made our way to the GrandMaster's box, enjoying the little fights but I was anxious to see my brother fight the champion.

Bets went around and I betted against Thor although Kai put her money on him.

His fight drew nearer and I grew more and more excited to see him get his ass kicked. "You're strangely excited to see your brother get beaten up." Kai remarked, although she was also grinning but I assumed for a different reason. "Are you ready to see the fabled champion?"

I could've reached into the minds of anyone around me and discovered who it was but I was enjoying her little game. "Alright," I purred into her ear and she gave me an evil look and her heart rate spiked. "Am I making you uncomfortable?" I asked, nipping her ear.

She glanced around at all the people around us, "that wouldn't necessarily be the word I would choose."

Before I could teleport us back to bed, The GrandMaster's hologram appeared, welcoming everyone to the show. "Making his first appearance, though he looks quite promising. Got a couple of tricks up his sleeve, I'll say no more, see what you think. Ladies, gentlemen, I give you - Lord of Thunder!" Thor came walking out to various booing around the stadium. I added a few of my own to the mix.

The GrandMaster then announced his champion. I leaned forward, intent on seeing who it was. "Ladies and gentlemen," green smoke bombs went off, " I give you. Incredible Hulk!" The Hulk came bursting into the ring, roaring.

"I have to get off this planet." I said in shock and Kai chuckled beside me although I knew she was just as uneasy around the Hulk as I was. We'd both been beaten to a pulp by him.

"Hey," Thor waved up to us, "we know each other. He's a friend from work." The GrandMaster looked at me and Kai and I cleared my throat, pretending to focus on the fight.

I couldn't hear what Thor was saying until he pointed up to me. "Loki, look who it is!" I was frozen in my shock, what the hell was I supposed to do now? I was actually a little worried for Thor.

The fight began, each taking their hits at each other. Hulk went flying back into the wall and Thor approached him, reaching out with a hand. "The idiot," Kai said, "is he trying to get punched?" Just as she said that, Thor was grabbed by the Hulk and thrown around.

Just like I had been. "YES! That's how it feels!" I jumped to my feet, shouting. The GrandMaster looked shocked, "I'm just a huge fan of the sport."

The fight continued, Thor was getting pounded into the ground until he lit up like a lightbulb and punched the Hulk back with a fist covered in lightening. Huh, that was new. His eyes were glowing as well.

"Interesting," Kai said, leaning forwards along with everyone else to watch.

A second later, Thor fell to the ground, having been zapped by the obedience disk. People booed but the GrandMaster didn't seem concerned.

After that, the fight ended quickly.

"Well, that was interesting," I said after the fight had ended. "Fantastic surprise Kai," I smirked.

She shrugged, "I'm nothing if not mischievous." She frowned, joking aside. "Shouldn't we go check on him or something?"

"I'm not to worried about him," I took her in my arms, spinning her around the room. "I think I can take your mind off of him."

"Oh can you," she said before pulling my lips down to hers.

 

***

Kai

 

After Loki fell asleep I quickly changed, making my way down to the Hulks suite where Thor was being tended too.

I found him talking to the Hulk. Luckily, the Hulk didn't recognize me. "Thor," I said, moving into the room.

"Kai?" Thor looked shocked, "how did you get here?"

I sighed, "Loki tried to kill me by throwing me off Asgard. I landed here about three months ago." I studied him, asking the question that had been nagging me for a while. "Where's your hammer?"

"It broke." Was his reply.

"It BROKE?" How the hell did that happen?

"Yeah, my sister Hela ripped it apart...did you two not get around to that? You know, the imminent death of my people?" He asked me.

"We've been...busy," I replied although inside I was fuming. How had Loki left out such a key important detail. I assumed he had simply been overthrown and tossed out into the void.

Thor narrowed his eyes at me, "doing what?"

I blushed, "it doesn't matter. What's going on with your sister?"

Thor gave me a quick overview on what was going on. My eyes widened, "well, we have to get out of here and go help your people," I said. "How do you plan on doing that?"

"There's a quinjet down there," Thor pointed to it out the window, "we're going to take it and fly through a wormhole and land on Asgard and stop Hela."

I blinked, "okay, easier said than done. Who's coming?"

"You, me, Hulk and hopefully Loki and the Valkyrie," Thor said.

"NO HULK!" Hulk shouted.

"So far it's just you and me," Thor said.

I sighed, "wait here, I'll talk to Scrapper 142 and Loki. I'll meet you back here in an hour."

Thor gave me a thumbs up and I raced from the room. I found Brunnhilde at a bar, drinking away. "I see you met Thor," I said in way of greeting. "Did you hear about Asgard?"

"Thor told me," she said, downing a drink, "what will you do?"

I shrugged, "I'm going to help."

Brunnhilde turned to me, frowning. "Why? You owe nothing to the Asgardians. You should stay here, it's much simpler here."

I sighed, "I can't sit by and watch people die Brunnhilde. I'm not going to try and convince you to come but I'm going to help Thor. Have you seen Loki?"

"No," she said. Topaz appeared.

"The GrandMaster has summoned you booze head," she said in lieu of a greeting. Brunnhilde stood up and followed Topaz from the room.

"Get me one of those," I said, motioning to the bottle. I drained it all quickly, letting the buzz sweep through me.

I reached out with my mind, hunting down Loki. Why was he in Brunnhilde's apartment?

*What are you doing?* I sent to him telepathically.

*I'm tied up,* he replied, *come and save me, love?*

I rolled my eyes, shadow traveling to the apartment and opening the door. Brunnhilde was gone but Loki sat in the center of the room, tied up in chains to a chair. I smirked, "maybe I'll just leave you there," I moved closer to him. "What did you do to piss off Scrapper 142?"

Loki smirked, pleased with himself. I leaned down and kissed his neck. "I showed her some of her darkest memories," he replied. "Untie me darling, this isn't fair." He strained against his bonds as I kissed his neck again.

"It's fun for me," I replied, pulling away. "And why would you do that to Scrapper 142?"

"She insulted me," he bit.

I sighed, "try not to piss off my friends." I ran my fingers through his hair, I was enjoying teasing him while he was tied up.

"Promise," Loki said quickly, "now, come here." He stretched his lips up to try and meet mine and I finally caved, letting him kiss me.

I settled onto his lap, deepening the kiss when the door flew open. "What the hell is going on in here?" Thor boomed and I rolled off Loki, landing on my feet.

I cleared my throat as Thor stared at us in horror. "Oh, did you not get to that?" Brunnhilde smirked, "they're sleeping together."

I glared at her, Thor came farther into the room, still in shock. Behind him was Bruce, who looked equally confused and horrified.

"So," Bruce said, trying to break the awkward silence, "last time I saw you, you were trying to kill everyone. Where you at these days?"

"It varies from moment to moment," Loki deadpanned and I held back a snicker.

Brunnhilde pulled out her sword and Thor picked it up to admire it. "So, Sakaar and Asgard are about as far apart as any two known systems. Our best bet is a wormhole just outside of city limits. Refuel on Xandar, and we can be back on Asgard in 18 months." 

"Nope. We are going through the big one." He said, pointing with the sword.

"The Devil's anus?" Brunnhilde and I said at the same time.

"Anus?" Bruce spoke up from where he was eating food. "Whose anus?"

For the record, I didn't know it was called that when I picked it." Thor said in defense and the three of them began to talk science.

*Are you actually planning on helping them?* I asked Loki.

*I'm still trying to decide.*

*Well, try not to screw me over in the process. Or, you know, try to kill me again.*

*That was one time,* Loki said in exasperation.

*It was more than one time. You forgot the poisoned coffee.*

*That wasn't a murder attempt, it was curiosity.*

"There are one of two ships, absolute top of the line models..." Brunnhilde was saying and Loki cut her off.

"I don't mean to impose," the bottle shattered the wall between the two of us and I deflected the glass off of myself. "But the GrandMaster has a great many ships. I may even have stolen the access codes to his security system."

"And suddenly you're overcome with an urge to do the right thing," Brunnhilde cocked an eyebrow. I was with her on this one.

*What are you planning?*

He ignored me, "heavens no. I've run out of favor with the GrandMaster, and in exchange for codes and access to his ship I'm asking for save passage through the anus." Sounded reasonable but I knew he had to be up to something.

"You're telling us that you can get us access into the garage without setting off any alarms?"

"Yes brother, I can."

"Okay can I just a quick FYI." Bruce called us over, waving me over with them and I leaned in to listen, "I was just talking to him a couple minutes ago and he was totally ready to kill any of us."

"He did try to kill me," Brunnhilde said.

"And me," I raised my hand, pulled down my shirt to show the scar over my heart. "He threw me off the planet and into space with a knife through my heart." Bruce looked shocked. 

"Yes me too," Thor began, "on many, many, occasions. There was one time when we were children, he transformed himself into a snake and he knows that I love snakes. So, I went to pick up the snake to admire it and he transformed back into himself and he was like 'MBLEGH it's me!' And he stabbed me. We were eight at the time." Loki couldn't help but crack a smile at the story.

"If were boosting a ship we're going to need to draw the guards away from the palace." Brunnhilde suggested.

"Why not set the beast lose?" Loki teased.

"Shut up."

"Who's the beast?" Brunnhilde asked and I realized she didn't know who Bruce really was.

"No there's no beast, he's just being stupid," Thor said. "We're going to start a revolution."

What the hell did that mean? "Revolution?"

"I'll explain later."

"Who's this guy again?"

"I'll explain later."

"Does that mean someone will untie me now," Loki spoke up.

"Yes," Thor said, "but no more," he motioned between the two of us, making kissing motions with his hands.

"No promises," Loki smirked and I smacked him upside the head before undoing his bonds.

"H-how long has this been a thing?" Bruce asked us, probably trying to be polite.

"That's a conversation for later," I said. Loki stood up, flexing his wrists. "Come on, we don't have a lot of time."

Once the plan was laid out, we split off. Loki and Thor went on their way to break into the hanger, Brunnhilde and Bruce climbed into her ship and I would go with Loki and Thor to get in my own ship.

It had been a gift from the GrandMaster when I arrived but I had only gotten around to flying it once. It was parked in the same hanger as the other ships.

We were expecting some sort of resistance so Brunnhilde and I would fly behind the ship and act as defense.

It was easy to carve through the palace since everyone was mostly distracted. I left the two boys to work their way up to the GrandMaster's private chamber while I went to the public one to get my own ship. I could've shadow travelled but it was much more entertaining to fight my way through.

With a few button presses my ship was quickly unlocked and I shot out of the palace. I felt pain spark through me and doubled over, waves of lightning flashing between me and him. *Loki? You still alive?*

I felt him trying to reach me and I turned the ship around, flying back to the palace but the Commodore blasted by me. I turned on the radio. "Thor, where's Loki?"

"He set off the alarms," Thor replied, "he was planning to betray me the entire time."

I groaned, *seriously?*

*I didn't realize you were serious about helping them,* Loki replied, *I was going to use the reward money for us.*

I rolled my eyes, *next time, catch me up on your plan.* His pain had faded a little but he was still immobilized. *Once we're finished on Asgard, I'll come back for you.*

*Kai!*

"Kai?" Thor said at the same time, "are you coming?"

I shot back towards Thor in the Commodore, Brunnhilde's ship falling into place beside me. Thor opened the doors and Bruce went flying up into the ship. 

Gus fired at us and I turned my ship in reverse, firing back at them. The GrandMaster hadn't bought me a warship, it only had forward facing guns on it and they did little damage.

"Are you trying to get yourself killed Kai?" Brunnhilde shouted, "your ship isn't doing any damage!"

"Yeah, I can see that!" I shouted back, "don't worry, I got it covered." I flew my ship forwards, aiming for another ship and plowed into it, jumping out at the last second and flew towards the Commodore.

I landed on top of it, waving down to Bruce who waved back. I faced the on coming ships, firing energy from my fists at them, taking out another ship.

I heard an explosion and turned to see Brunnhilde flying from her ruined ship, she landed on the side of the Commodore and climbed backwards, ready to take out the other ships with me.

Thor joined us a minute later. "Who's flying the ship!" I shouted in fear. It better not be Bruce.

"Bruce!" Thor replied, ripping a gun off of one of the ships. I prayed he didn't kill us and I continued to fire at the ships while Brunnhilde and Thor jumped from ship to ship and tore into them.

Eventually only one ship was left and I swung inside the Commodore, Brunnhilde and Thor joined a moment later, destroying the final ship. None of them asked about Loki. Did he really just fade into the background like that? No wonder he kept trying to kill people.

"Hold on!" Brunnhilde said, taking the controls and we shot off into the wormhole.


	7. Chapter Seven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Telepathic communication is marked with *asterisks*   
> Also available on WattPadd under Ariadnesmaze

Kai

The undead Asgardians kept coming, I was starting to exhaust my magic. Thor was trying to distract Hela but I didn't know how much longer that would last.

Heimdall was thrown backwards but I was too far away to reach him, I had several holograms of myself fighting but I couldn't hold it for much longer.

Korg, a Kornan I had seen a few times fighting in the rings, suddenly appeared out of nowhere. "Hey man," he said to Heimdall, "we're gonna jump on that spaceship and get out of here, wanna come?"

The bridge rumbled and I turned to see Loki standing dramatically on the edge of a huge ship, "your savior is here!" I couldn't help but smile, he climbed off. "Did you miss me?" He smirked, I moved towards him. "Everyone on that spaceship now!"

"Welcome home," Heimdall said, "I saw you coming."

"Of course you did," Loki said, a little miffed. I reached him and he smirked, pulling me in for a kiss. "Looks like you'd all be dead without me."

"Was this your plan all along?" I asked, cocking an eyebrow.

"Well, I wasn't expecting my soulmate to leave me stranded," he said, pulling out his knives. "If it wasn't for the giant army about to attack us, I would stab you for it."

"That's an old threat!" I shouted back as the undead warriors all shrieked and raced for us and I threw myself into battle.

Loki and I moved together fluidly and the thrill of battle was nothing compared to the thrill of fighting with him instead of against him.

Suddenly, a giant lightning bolt ripped through the palace and Thor came flying onto the bifrost, cutting through the overwhelming army.

Eventually, the fighting died down and we moved to Thor's side. "You're late," he said to Loki.

"You're missing an eye," Loki said, shocked.

"It isn't over," Brunnhilde said, Hela was coming.

"I think we should disband the revengers," Thor said. Now wasn't really the time.

"Hit her with a lightning blast," Loki suggested.

"I just hit her with the biggest lightning blast in the history of lightning it did nothing!"

"We just need to hold her off until everyone is on board."

"It won't end there. The longer Hela's on Asgard the more powerful she grows. She'll hunt us down, we need to stop her here and now."

"So what do we do?" I asked.

"I'm not doing get help," Loki said. What the hell was that?

"Asgards not a place, it's a people." An idea seemed to occur to Thor, "Loki this was never about stopping Ragnarok, this was about causing Ragnarok. Surtur's crown, the vault!" Loki seemed to know what he meant, "it's the only way."

"Bold move brother, even for me." Loki raced off and I watched him go. Don't worry, he said, I'll be back.

"Shall we?" Thor asked us.

"After you." Brunnhilde said and we launched into battle with Hela. The ship took off and they began to fly away. 

Suddenly, a giant thing burst from the palace. "Tremble before me Asgard I am your reckoning!" Hela launched herself at the creature and I took several steps back.

"We're fulfilling the prophecy," Thor said, pained as he watched Surtur destroy his home.

"I hate this prophecy," Brunnhilde said.

"So do I, but we have no choice. Sutur destroys Asgard he destroys Hela so that our people may live. But we need to let him finish the job otherwise..." Hulk launched himself at the monster screaming, "Hulk, stop, you moron! Hulk! Just for once in your life don't smash!"

"Big monster!"

"Lets go!"

The Hulk was angry but he picked us up and we jump for the ship, landing inside. I raced to the window, wondering where Loki was but before I could reach out for his mind, the planet exploded.

I panicked, LOKI! No response.

I raced for the door, determined to jump back out into space and find him but Thor grabbed my arm. "Kai! No!"

I struggled against his godly strength, "I have to go find him!"

"He's gone Kai, there's nothing you can do," Thor replied.

"He's not!" I reached out with my mind hunting him down. His heartbeat was still beating rapidly next to my own. He was alive!

"I'm here," I turned to see Loki and I ran to him, pulling him into a hug. If Thor hadn't been there I would've kissed him.

"Don't do that to me," I said, punching him in the chest.

Loki laughed, "it's so much fun to tease you though."

Thor took his place on the throne and we began our trip to Earth. Loki and I spent the afternoon checking on the people. "Do you think it's a good idea to go to Earth?" I asked Thor as we stood near the front of the ship, peering out into space.

"Of course, the people of Earth love us," Thor said.

"I think," Loki said, "she means 'is it a good idea to bring me back to Earth?'"

"Don't worry brother," Thor said, "I feel as though everything is going to be just fine."

It seemed fate had a different idea in mind for us because the next thing I knew, a huge ship was dropping from the sky, dwarfing our own.

"Thanos," I heard Loki whisper.

Who?


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Telepathic communication marked with *asterisks*

KAI

 

The fight was almost laughably short. We were all still so drained from fighting Hela that there wasn't much we could do against Thanos and his children.

Thanos had a strange attack pattern, he split us in half and allowed half of the Asgardians to escape. Brunnhilde didn't want to leave but I convinced her that the people needed someone to lead them, whatever happened.

The Hulk was shrouded in Loki's magic so we could use him as a surprise attack but we didn't even get a chance to use him before Thanos decimated the rest of the Asgardians.

I had tried to shield them as best as I could but my strength had waned and eventually everyone was dead but the four of us.

I was being held down by The Maw's powers, tied up by pieces of meal but I was building up my strength to break out of them. If things went further south than they already were, I knew I could get out easily and attack.

Thor was being tortured by Thanos and Loki was standing in the middle of it all, terrified of the people around him but doing a good job of not showing it.

I made eye contact with him, *plan?*

*I'm working on it.* He responded as he conjured the Tesseract to stop his brothers torture and I saw him grit his teeth, his mind running a mile a minute. He swallowed, his eyes meeting mine. I shook my head as discreetly as I could. His eyes betrayed him, I knew he was planning something stupid.

Something that would get him killed.

"I assure you brother, the sun will shine on us again," Loki promised, the same words echoing through my head as well. It wasn't a promise, it was a goodbye.

"You're optimism is misplaced, Asguardian."

I rallied my powers, gathering my strength and was about to snap the bonds holding me when Loki's voice rang through my head. *Wait.*

I froze. "Well for one thing," Loki said and I narrowed my eyes as he stalled, "I'm not Asguardian. And for another, we have a Hulk."

The Hulk roared and appeared out of nowhere, slamming into Thanos. Loki threw the Tesseract over his shoulder and plowed into his brother, using his own body to protect him from the Hulk's rage.

The Tesseract skidded to a halt near my feet. I snapped through Ebony Maw's powers once again and grabbed it but the big grey thing with the giant sword, knocked it from my grasp. I lunged for it but the Hulk went sailing by me before I could do anything as Thanos delivered a powerful punch to the Hulk's face. I froze in shock as Thanos bested the Hulk.

I drew my swords, stepping between Thor and Loki and Thanos as Heimdall summoned his powers and sent the Hulk free falling through space.

"That was a mistake," Ebony Maw said before killing him. Thor screamed and The Maw wrapped him in metal to keep him from moving. Loki stepped into the shadows, inching towards the Tesseract.

I pushed down my grief, glancing between Thanos, Thor, Loki and the Tesseract. "Go on," Thanos smirked at me, stepping aside to give me a clear path to the Tesseract. "See what happens."

I had to make a choice. I could use the last of my magic to shadow travel Thor and Loki to safety and then be left to the mercy of Thanos' children or I could fight Thanos and try to grab the Tesseract.

The last dregs of my magic were lashing through my veins, making my blood boil. If I used my powers, I would die. Either way, it wasn't looking up for me.

I carved my body into two, cloning myself as quickly as I could before one of me raced for Thor and Loki and the other raced for the Tesseract. Spots danced in front of my vision but I forced myself not to pass out as my magic burned my body from the inside out.

This would kill me.

I lunged for the Tesseract but purple light surrounded me as Thanos threw the Power Stone's energy at me.

I screamed in pain as it sucked my magic from me and burned my skin with temperatures so cold I thought I would freeze to the ships deck.

Ebony Maw picked up the Tesseract and bowed before Thanos. "No other being has ever had the might, nay the nobility, to wield not one, but two Infinity Stones." I rolled my eyes at his ridiculous speech but that was about all I could do as I lay, unable to move on the floor because for the first time in my life, I was powerless.

Thanos cracked the Tesseract into pieces and pulled the blue stone from the center. As he held it up to his gauntlet, I prayed he was be consumed by its power and died. The Space Stone slid into a spot on the gauntlet and he shouted in pain, and I begged whatever gods might be listening to kill him. To end it right now.

But, the pain faded and Thanos stared down at his gauntlet with a new found reverence. "There are two more stones on Earth. Find them my children and bring them to me on Titan."

No, he knew where they were. Vision. Dr. Strange. Tony. Peter. Steve. Everyone was at risk.

Tears of frustration dripped down my cheeks as I struggled to get to my feet, I tried to force my body to move and tried to use the wall to pull myself up.

"Father we will not fail you," one of the woman replied.

Thanos turned his gaze on me and I knew I was going to die. He leveled his gauntlet at me and the two stones started to glow. I stared him down, determined to die with whatever dignity I had left.

Besides, I might not die. I had no idea if the Infinity Stones could kill me. But my magic was gone, sucked away by the Power Stone and I had a sneaking suspicion it might cost me my life.

"If I might interject," Loki's voice cut through the silence and my heart stopped beating. I shot my eyes to him but he avoided looking at me, trying to seem as unbothered and uncaring as he once had been. "If you're going to Earth, you might need a guide. I might have a bit of experience in that arena." *Run,* he spoke into my mind, *get out of here. Take Thor and go.*

Even if I wanted too, I didn't have enough power to do it but Thanos' attention was turned away from me as he turned to Loki, the one who had failed him.

"If you consider failure experience," Thanos said, dropping his gauntlet from my face. I noticed Loki eying the movement.

"I consider experience, experience." Now he was stalling. "Oh mighty Thanos," Loki started, this was going to end badly. I tried to struggle to my feet again but there was nothing. Not even a flicker of my power "I Loki, prince of Asgard...," Loki glanced at Thor, "Odinson. Rightful King of Jotunheim, god of Mischief, do hereby pledge to you, my undying fidelity," I saw a knife in his hand and immediately knew what he was planning. No, no, this would get him killed.

*NO!* I shouted out but it was too late, Loki's dagger stabbed upwards for his head but his hand was stopped by the space stone.

"Undying," Thanos said, his face a mask of cruel amusement. He glanced between Loki and I before a true smile blossomed across his face. "You should choose your words more carefully." 

Thanos wrapped his hand around Loki's throat. "NO!" I shouted out. Thanos loosened his grip and Loki got in a single breath of air before Thanos tightened his grip again. I couldn't speak, couldn't move, forced to watch them choke my soulmate.

"You'll will never be...a god," Loki choked out. *Kai,* Loki's voice echoed in my head, *I lov-.* His neck snapped and I felt him die.

It was like my soul was ripping in half, an inhuman scream ripped from me and everyone in the room was blown backwards as the mating bond between was was shredded to ribbons. I don't know where I found the strength but my chaos magic swarmed to the surface and I launched myself at Thanos.

He threw Loki to the ground next to Thor and swatted at me but I dodged. For a second, I saw fear flash in his eyes before he closed his fist and activated both of the stones at once. I was thrown backwards by the magic, feeling it tear at me, pulling me apart.

"If you weren't so determined to kill me, I think you'd make an excellent addition to my army," Thanos said. He raised one of my own dropped swords and plunged it into my chest. He and his children vanished and the ship began to come apart around us.

Thor's bonds vanished and he crawled over to Loki, "Loki?"

I wasn't strong enough to get the sword from my chest and I crumbled to the ground, the pain throbbing through me. I reached out for Loki, gripping his cold lifeless hand. He had to be alive, he had to! Loki? Loki? I called out for his mind, half expecting a snarky reply. Half expecting him to walk out of the shadows but no one came.

My eyes finally closed as the ship blew up around us and I was tossed into space, still holding tightly to Loki's body.

 

***

THOR

 

I floated through darkness, my grief my only company as unconsciousness swept through me and I lost my hold on Loki and Kai.

I was determined to stay here for as long as I could, I had failed as a king. I had failed as a brother. I had failed as a god.

Something called me from the darkness much sooner than I had anticipated and I found myself stumbling on a spaceship in the middle of a field of the bodies of my people. "Who the hell are you guys?" I asked, as I tried to remain upright.

"We're the Guardians of the Galaxy." The man in the red coat said.

I stared around at them before turning to look out the window, "who else did you find? Who else is alive?"

"So far, just you."

No, Kai would be alive. I knew it.

And Loki... Loki had to be.

"We have to find Kai," I said, as we floated among the dead bodies of the other Asgardians.

"Who's Kai?" Quill asked,

"A friend," I replied. "She'll be easy to recognize, she has a sword through her chest and she's probably holding the body of my brother, Loki. Who hopefully, is also not dead."

"If she has a sword through her chest she's probably dead," Rocket spoke up. I glared at him, "but you know what, we can definitely have a look around."

We began to comb space, hunting them down.

"There," Mantis said, "I see her." Kai was indeed floating out in space, unconscious. Her hair and dress floated around her and a giant sword protruded from her chest. Loki was floating nearby, their hands stretched out for one another as if they had been holding hands. I prayed that they were both still alive.

We pulled them inside and Mantis crouched over them, she put her hand to Kai's forehead, "she is in anguish. She mourns for the loss of the one she loves." A few tears dropped down Mantis' cheek.

I reached over and yanked the sword from her chest and Kai gasped for air, her wound slowly healing. "Whoa!" Quill shouted, "are you Asgardians invincible or something?"

"She is not Asgardian," I explained. "Honestly, I don't know where she comes from. Only that she doesn't belong in this universe or even in this reality."

Kai opened her eyes, "Loki?" She gasped sitting up. Her eyes immediately fell on his body on the ground. Mantis shook her head and I knew that he was dead. "No," she stumbled from the table and fell to the ground, trying to get to his body. I helped her up and she finally realized who was all around her.

"Thor, what's going on."

"These are the Guardians of the Galaxy," I gave a quick explanation. "They're going to help us stop Thanos."

Kai hadn't taken her eyes off of Loki's body. She moved to his side, brushing his hair out of his pale face. "Thanos killed him," Kai whispered. "He's going to die for that."

 

***

KAI

 

After Thor and the raccoon and the tree left, I was left with the other Guardians who were standing around awkwardly.

"So, was he your boyfriend?" Quill started, probably trying to make conversation.

I frowned, "he was more than that." I stood up, "let's go to Knowhere."

I sat by Loki's body the entire ride, I used my magic to heal his wound but it didn't change the fact that he was dead. I felt...empty inside. I tried to shut down my emotions so that I could focus but I couldn't do it, all I could think about were the visions we had and how they would no longer come true.

We had had three visions. The first had been the two of us fighting, covered in dirt in blood but we were grinning at each other and leaned over and kissed before running back into the thick of battle.

The second had been the two of us wearing golden crowns, ruling over the Asgardian people.

The third and final vision was the most bittersweet of all, it had been of two children, looking like a perfect mix of the two of us with my dark skin and his green eyes. One had an Afro of curly hair while the other had the same silky hair as their father. Their smiling faces were the ones that haunted my dreams at night and now, their father would join them.

I didn't know how long I sat there, thinking about what could have happened.

The Guardians has been talking about the Infinity Stones. The Time Stone was one of them. What if I managed to get my hands on that stone? Could I reverse time and bring him back? Would it bring back his soul? His memories? Or would I need the Soul Stone for that?

As we flew to Knowhere I debated on telling the Guardians what I knew. The Reality Stone wasn't there, I had taken it and given it to Loki.

A plan began to form in my mind. A wicked, perfect plan to bring Loki back.

Thanos was going to Knowhere. He thought he would find the stone there but instead, I would attack him, kill him and then take the stones for myself. Then, I would go to Earth, steal the time stone and then bring Loki back.

And, if I needed the soul stone to do it, I had a sneaking suspicion Gamora was hiding something. She had talked to Quill about killing her over some secret information that Thanos wanted.

I thought through my plan, picking out the weak points. If I failed at killing Thanos, I could offer him a deal. Loki was the only one who knew where the Reality Stone was - and Thanos had killed him - which meant Thanos would most likely bring Loki back to life. I could extract the information Gamora was keeping hidden and give Thanos the location of the Soul Stone in exchange for Loki's life.

It sounded fair enough to me. I kept running different scenarios through my head as we flew to Knowhere and by the time we got there, I was ready for anything.

We crept up on Thanos slowly, listening to the conversation between the Collector and him.

Gamora launched herself at her father without warning, slicing at him. If she killed him, I wouldn't have to manipulate anyone.

Thanos only had two of the stones but he was still overly powerful. I didn't know if Gamora would survive, which would ruin my plan.

Thanos threw Gamora to the ground, pointing his gauntlet at her.

"Thanos," looks like I was going with Plan B. I stepped from the shadows.

"You," Thanos said, " you survived."

"I did," I said, keeping my hands in the air. "I'm here to make you a deal."

Drax shouted, running from the shadows but with a swipe from the power stone, Mantis and Drax went down.

I had no idea where Quill was. But, he wasn't my biggest concern right now.

"I'm listening," Thanos said, pressing his own daughters sword deeper into her neck to keep her from moving.

"I know where the Reality Stone is," I said, "and I'll tell you." I glanced at Gamora. "And, I can extract the location of the soul stone from her."

"No tricks? You come without a fight?"

"Of course"

Gamora looked shocked. "Traitor!" Peter Quill came sprinting from the shadows, pointing his gun at me. "Let her go!"

"Ah, the boyfriend," Thanos said, staring at Quill.

"I like to think of myself as a long term titan killing booty call," his eyes flickered between me and Thanos as he pointed one gun at me and the other at Thanos. "How could you?" he asked but I refused to let my emotions get in the way of my plan.

"Peter," Gamora tried to cut in.

"If you don't let her go," he charged his gun, pointing them both at me. "I'll kill her and you'll lose the location of the reality stone."

Thanos and I both knew a little blast from that gun wouldn't keep me down for long. Gamora seemed to reach the same conclusion, realizing Peter was going to die if he shot me.

"Peter," Gamora cut in. "Not her," she said, tears gathering in her eyes. Peter froze, his eyes flickering between the three of us. "You promised!" She cried.

Peter slowly lowered his weapon at Gamora and she tensed, trying to calm her breathing.

I studied Peter, he wasn't going to do it.

"Oh daughter," Thanos said, "you expect too much from him." He cocked his head at Peter, his amusement well hidden but I could tell he was enjoying this. I stayed silent, watching. I owed nothing to these people. "She's asked hasn't she?" He pushed Gamora forwards until she was right in front of the gun, "DO IT!"

"I told you to go right," he said, as if that would fix anything.

"I love you," Gamora said and I caught my breath, suddenly seeing myself in her and Peter in Loki. I realized I didn't want Gamora to die. "More than anything."

But, Peter wasn't Loki. Loki would've killed me because he knew what torture Thanos would inflict upon me. And I wasn't Gamora, I wouldn't fail.

Gamora tried to smile, tried to make it okay that her boyfriend was pointing a gun at her. " I love you too," Peter said and something in his face changed.

He was going to do it.

My shock kept me from reacting but Thanos was quicker. With a burst from the space stone, Peter was thrown backwards.

"I like you," Thanos grabbed the two of us and we vanished to his ship.

We landed on the ship and I was immediately grabbed by several guards, "lock her up with our other prisoner. I will arrive shortly."

I went willingly, knowing that I could shadow travel away if necessary. I was led into a room where a blue robot women floated, partially dismembered.

I was chained to the wall and I waited, planning my words in my head carefully, planning for any obstacle.

Thanos entered the room an hour later with Gamora, she glared evilly at me but was quick to worry about the robot who was named Nebula, and was her sister.

"I thought you were going to let that monster play around with my head," Gamora said, glaring at me.

"She can lie much easier than you can," Thanos replied. "I only need her for the Reality Stone. This, this will be easy. You shouldn't have gotten so attached daughter."

"Please don't do this," Gamora gasped. Thanos closed his fist and Nebula's parts stretched, causing her to scream in pain.

"Stop it," Gamora said, "stop it," she grabbed her father's arm, lowering it. She was crying as she spoke next, "I swear to you on my life, I never found the Soul Stone."

I knew she was lying but I stayed silent, wanting to see where this would go. Thanos smiled and turned to one of the guards who accessed her memory files.

"We know what he's about to do, he's finally ready," Nebula was saying. "And he's going for the stones, all of them."

"He'll never get them all," Gamora replied, a hazy hologram of her appearing.

"He will!"

"He can't, because I found the map to the Soul Stone and I burned it to ash. I burned it." The hologram faded and Gamora stared at the ground, her body tensed, knowing what was coming.

"You're strong, me the generous me but I never taught you to lie. That's why you're so bad at it." He hissed, "where is the soul stone?" He crushed his fist and Nebula screamed.

I knew she was about to break. "VORMIR!" Thanos stopped and she crossed to her sister. "The stone is on Vormir."

Thanos grinned, "take her to my ship," he told a guard and Gamora was led away.

Now, he turned to me chained to the wall. "Now, tell me what you know."

I smirked, "The King of Asgard entrusted me, Thor and a few others to bring the Reality Stone to the Collector." I began, "I stole it and kept it on Earth for some time," I swallowed, this was going to be the tricky part.

"And?"

"And then I gave it away, as payment," I grinned up at him, "to Loki of Asgard."

The rage that crossed Thanos' face was exactly like I had planned. He slapped me hard, the metal from the gauntlet cutting into me. I couldn't help but laugh, "don't blame me, blame yourself. You killed the only person who knew the whereabouts of the Reality Stone."

Thanos grabbed me by the throat, "then I have no use of you."

"You still might," I choked out, "since I'm the only one who knows where his body is." It was true, I had hidden Loki's body in the pocket dimension I kept to stash things. It had taken a lot of time and effort but only I could access him now.

Thanos studied me before he roared, releasing me. "We have ways to get it out of you." 

I raised my head to meet his eyes, "no. You don't. I am Queen Kaieada of Eruvian. And I am 5000 years old. I have seen things you can only dream of seeing, I have razed cities and ruled worlds and I have endured many forms of pain. I promise you, Thanos, that there is nothing you can do to me that will make me divulge the resting place of my greatest leverage against you." Loki was more than just leverage but I didn't want to tell Thanos that.

Thanos laughed, which surprised me. "If you weren't so stubborn, you'd make a great addition to my army."

"If you hadn't killed my friends, I might have considered the offer," I said back. "Give me your word that once you obtain the proper stones, you will revive Loki to the exact state he was in before you attacked us, including his soul and memories and I will bring you his body and after he gives you the Reality Stone, you won't harm him."

"I will need the Time Stone and the Soul Stone to do it." Thanos explained, "once I return from Vormir we will go to Titan, where the Time Stone will be waiting. Then, I promise you, I will revive Loki of Asgard and not harm him. I swear." He said it with such sincerity that I almost believed him but I assumed we both knew that one of us was going to try and kill the other at some point.

"Then, we have a deal."

Thanos stood, "I will return soon with the Soul Stone." He left, leaving me chained to the wall. "Put Nebula back together," he commanded the robot in the room and it began to dutifully obey him.

It wouldn't be long now until Thanos returned and the second part of my plan would commence.

He had mentioned that the Time Stone was on Titan. If I could get the Time Stone before he did, then maybe I could use it to kill him and take the other stones for myself.

Nebula was in the middle of being put back together when she managed to break out. She crossed the floor and made a call, "Mantis, listen very carefully. I need you to meet me on Titan."

Well, problem solved. "Hey," I said as Nebula turned to leave. "Take me with you."

"No, I don't ally with people who bargain the fate of the universe for a single man."

I rolled my eyes, gathering my strength and snapping the chains with one motion. "It wasn't a suggestion, I'm coming. So, either we work together or I pull you apart."

Nebula studied me, considering it. "Fine, But don't think I won't kill you if you try anything."

Obviously Nebula had no idea that I couldn't die, but I pretended like the threat actually affected me.

"Let's move," she said and I followed her from the room. Next up: Titan.

***

We arrived on Titan in the middle of a great battle. Damn it, I hadn't beaten Thanos here. "Tony?" I whispered as I saw Iron Man fighting Thanos below. How did he get here?

Before I could see who else Tony had brought, Nebula floored it and we plowed into Thanos. I was thrown from the wreckage and half buried under the rubble but I managed to push it off.

I found that everyone had grabbed onto Thanos, pulling on the gauntlet. If this worked, then I could bring Loki back myself. Strange had the time stone hanging around his neck and the Soul Stone was sitting on the gauntlet.

I hadn't joined the fight yet. I was sure the Guardians wouldn't enjoy it and might try and kill me. Besides, if Thanos won, I wanted to let him believe I was still on his side.

This would be tricky, I had to play my cards right because I didn't want to have to fight any of the Avengers.

Thanos grabbed the gauntlet, attacking them again. I stayed hidden, watching and debating on my next move, trying to ignore the panic and the pain of my friends. My family.

When Thanos turned all of his attention to Tony, I couldn't take it anymore. I shadow travelled in front of Tony, catching the punch Thanos had intended for him.

"Kai?" Tony gasped, "perfect timing."

"Yeah Kai!" Peter cheered from a rooftop. "We're gonna win now!"

"KAI?" Drax shouted, "TRAITOR!"

The other Guardians turned their swords on me, exactly what I thought was going to happen. I waved a hand and closed my fist, effectively wiping their memories of me. They blinked in confusion but turned back to Thanos.

"What the hell does that mean?" Tony asked, gathering his strength to take on another round with Thanos.

"Who knows," I said, summoning my swords. I launched into battle with him, twisting around to attack Thanos.

Thanos slowly began to take out the others until it was just Tony, Stephen and me. Thanos aimed the soul stone at me and suddenly, it felt like I was being ripped to shreds from the inside out. I fell to the ground, choking.

"A soul divided between two places," Thanos chuckled, "the only weakness to this stone."

My skull felt as though it was splitting open and someone was carving out my insides and shredding them to pieces.

My vision went in and out of focus as the pain began to fade. I blinked, realizing why the pain hadn't lasted long.

Thanos had turned his gaze on Tony.

I struggled to my feet, ready for another round when Thanos turned Tony's weapon on him and the blade went right through him.

I was too startled to scream but a strange gurgling sound came from me, I charged Thanos but he swatted me aside, leaning over Stark.

"You have my respect Stark, when I'm done half of humanity will still be alive." Thanos said, "I hope they remember you," Thanos said as Tony gasped for air. I ran forwards but Strange stopped it.

"Stop," Strange said, getting to his feet. "Spare his life and I will give you the stone."

"No tricks?" Thanos asked, still pointing the gauntlet at Tony.

"Don't," Tony managed to gasp out but Strange didn't listen. The Time Stone glinted as Strange pulled it from a star. He passed it to Thanos and Thanos took it reavently, adding it to his gauntlet.

He turned from the two men and too me; I was standing now, sword at the ready for his next move.

Without a word, I raised my hands, conjuring my energy and summoning Loki's body from the other realm. My heart wrenched at his pale form and lifeless eyes.

"I will overlook your treachery," Thanos said, graciously, "as long as Loki delivers what is promised."

"No," Tony spoke up, choking on his own blood. "Kai, you can't do this. Half the universe will die."

"All of my universe already did," I whispered and it was the truth, I hadn't realized how much Loki meant to me until he was gone.

Thanos closed his fist, twisted his arm and activated the two stones. I held my breath, watching the magic work on Loki. I watched his color return and his body mend, now, his soul.

I focused on him, reaching out for his mind. I crumbled to my knees beside him as I heard the somber notes of our song, growing a little less somber the farther Loki returned to me.

Tears dripped down my cheeks as I felt his mind again, as I felt the warmth return to him.

Loki gasped, his eyes throwing open and his hands flying to his neck. "Kai?" He said, his eyes falling on me.

I reached for him but his eyes settled on Thanos and he reached out a hand to push me behind him. "Kai, what is this?"

"Yeah Kai," Tony spoke up, "care to explain?"

"We made a bargain," Thanos held out his hand, "Loki's life for the reality stone."

When Loki didn't move, Thanos leveled the Soul Stone at me, causing it to rip through me like it had earlier. I contained my scream but based off of Loki's cry of pain, he knew exactly what was happening to me. "Stop," he gasped out. Loki looked at me and I gave a weak smile. Without a word he held out his hand and the Aether appeared, withering and twisting in his palm.

Thanos grabbed it and it solidified into a stone before clicking into place on his gauntlet. "One to go," he said before he vanished into a portal.

"Kai," Loki said, "what did you do?"

"I made a choice," I whispered, "I decided what I could live without; you or half the universe."

"Kai," Tony was almost in tears. "How could you?" He then rounded on Strange, "and how could you? You gave up the one thing you swore to protect, for me," Tony's voice broke. "Why?"

"Tony," Stephen said softly, "I have seen over 14 million versions of the future. We haven't lost yet. If anything, Kai has only helped ensure it."

That seemed to calm Tony down and lessen my guilt just a little. I reached out for Loki and pulled him towards me, he wrapped his arms around me and just held me.

I breathed him in even though he was still covered in dust and blood, letting his mind wash over me as I told myself he was alive. He was alive. And we were okay.

Loki kissed my forehead and I realized I was crying, holding him so tight it had to hurt but he didn't complain, holding me equally as tightly. *I never thought I'd see you again.* His voice was choked and I reached up and wiped the tears from his face.

Peter came running up to us, "guys, I got all the Guardians to safety, they should wake up soon. Hi, Mr. Loki, I thought you were dead? Where you at right now?"

"I'm back," Loki said. "And I'm at a one." He kissed the top of my head.

"Okay," Tony said, putting a hand to his head, "okay. Okay. This is...This is fine." He stared at the two of us, "how long has this been going on?"

I frowned, waving my hand over his wound and beginning to heal it. "I don't know. Like three weeks?" I finished healing him and looked up to see him red in the face, processing what I had just said.

"You're telling me that you bargained the universe on a relationship that's been going on for THREE WEEKS!" Tony yelled and I didn't blame him for his obviously panic. He didn't know about the emotional bond between us or the soul mate thing. He just assumed this was some lust driven thing.

"But I caught you guys on the roof like a year ago?" Peter said, confused. His face had turned red again.

"Oh yeah," I smirked, "About that."

"She was trying to kill me," Loki cut in, spreading his hands, "she tends to do that."

"Says the one who drove a dagger through my heart and put me in a coma," I muttered.

"Is that why you've been missing for so long?" Strange asked.

"Probably, how long have I been missing?" I asked Peter.

"I don't know like a year?" Peter looked to Tony for confirmation.

"Yeah something like that, we just assumed you found a way to get home from Asgard."

"No, Loki tried to kill me," I deadpanned.

The Guardians had stirred, coming over to join us. We were all battle hardened and weary and I knew we would eventually need to find a way back to Earth.

Loki knew exactly what I was thinking. *With our combined magic, I think we can shadow travel to Earth. Or at least another habitable planet.*

*We can't leave the others.*

*We definitely can.*

*Let me rephrase that,* I said sarcastically, *we can't leave Peter. Or Tony. And probably not Strange.*

*Can't Strange conjure his own portals?*

*Fair point,* I agreed, *maybe we should just let him do the portal so we don't exhaust our own magical supplies. Then he can get us all back and we can kill Thanos.*

Strange turned to stare at us, "what's going on?" Could he read minds now?

We both froze, "nothing?" I said, not at all convincingly.

Strange studied us, making symbols with his hands until he flicked them towards us and a physical roped appeared, connecting our two minds together.

"Remarkable," Strange said, touching the bond between us. "I've heard it theorized but I've never seen it actualized in a physical form..."

"Seen what?" Tony asked.

"A soul connection," Strange said, "especially one this strong." He picked at the bond, making it humm and making the two of us wince. "What sorcerer did this to you?"

I frowned, "no sorcerer did this. It's a bond created through fate on my...in my reality. It's not common but not rare either, one out of five people have a connection like this."

"Shouldn't that number be even?" Peter whispered to Tony and he shrugged.

Loki waved a hand and the string vanished although I could still feel our connection. "Enough of that," he sounded tense.

Thunder rumbled. "Something is happening," Mantis spoke up and I looked up to see her turning to ash and dissolving.

I jumped to my feet, what was happening? One by one, the others started to vanish.

I gripped Loki's hand, turning to look at Tony. I realized what was happening, Thanos had done it. Tony came to the same conclusion as me but before either of us could get mad at me for it, a voice cut through that terrified me.

"Mr. Stark," Peter stumbled towards Tony, "I don't feel so good."

I clutched to Loki, stars no. Don't let him die too. I realized he was muttering a similar prayer. I fell to the ground as Tony hugged Peter to him, "I don't wanna go. I don't wanna go."

Peter fell to the ground, staring up at the sky, "I'm sorry." He said before dissolving into dust.

Ten. I heard Loki growl and I agreed with him. Thanos would die for this.

"He did it," Nebula said, stoic.

I crumbled to my knees, "this was all my fault." Loki put a hand to my shoulder but didn't contradict me.

Tony was in too much shock to say anything.

I don't know how long we sat there, staring at each other. Realizing we had lost.

Tony finally turned to me, "Kai, do you realize what you've done?"

"I'm sorry," I cried out, "I'm so sorry Tony."

"No, don't apologize to me!" Tony shouted, "apologize to...," his eyes flickered to the fading dust that had once been Peter. "You bartered the universe back for someone who is no more virtuous than Thanos."

"I haven't committed mass genocides," Loki said back. "And besides, I think you're being a little too hard on Kai." He said, "what would you give, Stark?" Loki asked, "to get the kid back? To talk to Ms. Potts and make sure she's still alive?"

Stark paused, swallowing. "I wouldn't give half the universe..." He trailed off, sighing. "Anything." He finally said.

"So, you can't blame Kai completely."

Tony rubbed his forehead, we stayed silent for another immeasurable second of time. "What if we can bring everyone back?" Tony whispered, more to himself than anyone else.

"What?" Nebula asked.

"The stones, they can do anything, right?"

"Yes," Nebula said, "they can."

"Then we need to get back to Earth, find whoever's left and get him." Tony said, "we don't have a lot of time."

I didn't know if it would work but it was worth a shot. "The Guardians ship is just over that ridge," Nebula pointed. "We can get back."

We moved towards it, the four of us. Determined to get back to Earth and kill Thanos.

Loki's hand snaked around mine and I gripped it tightly. I swallowed a lump in my throat, Thanos had kept his promise, he hadn't harmed us. But, at what cost?


	9. ENDGAME SPOLIERS AHEAD

ENDGAME SPOILERS AHEAD.   
You have been warned.


	10. Chapter Nine

ENDGAME SPOILERS

Kai

The sound of music from upstairs along with Tony and Nebula's talking was the only sounds in the cold heart of space.

We had been floating for 22 days. Stuck in deep space.

Oxygen would run out tomorrow.

I walked down the stairs, finding Loki by a window, staring out into the beautiful space around us. It had been three days since he had last spoken to anyone and I was worried about him. His thoughts were closed but I could feel his worry pulse through every once in a while.

I had tried to talk him out of it but he told me that he was thinking and I hadn't bothered him.

I picked up another blanket, Tony was looking the worst out of all of us and he woke up colder each morning. I worried there would be a day when he didn't wake up. And starvation wasn't something my magic could fix.

Nebula was part robot, she'd last longer than Tony but she would eventually suffocate with him. Loki, I wasn't sure how long he'd last but he'd die eventually.

As for me, well, I'd be suffocating for all of eternity. I tried not to think about it, it brought back too many painful memories of my body being crushed under tons of Soul Eater metal, sucking the life from me, sucking the strength and suffocating me underneath it.

"This is exactly what I was worried about," Loki spoke up and I turned to face him. He turned towards me, the light of space accentuating his features. "What I dreaded."

"What is?" I asked softly, moving closer to him. I reached out for his hand but he pulled back.

"We are..." Loki seemed to be struggling for the right word. "A sickness on the other. A tumor that must be cut out." I blinked but he continued before I could come up with a response, "we are going to be the death of each other."

"Loki, what are you talking about?" I reached out for him again and hugged him from behind, kissing his cheek.

He put his hand on top of mine but pulled away a second later. "We are each other's weaknesses, when we are together we are strong but when someone threatens the other, we lose all reason. We lose all logic and fight to save the other. If anyone wants to manipulate me, all they would have to do is threaten you. It's so obvious, a child could exploit it!"

"I don't think that's true."

Loki spun to face me. "You bartered away the universe for me and for what; an extra 22 days together?"

I blinked back tears, "you had no idea what that was like, having you ripped from me. I didn't know that Thanos would win. I thought I could..."

"What?" Loki said venomously, "save me? What was the cost Kai? Did you even think Kai?"

"Since when did you become so self righteous?" I said, appalled. "You caused the death of your father and the destruction of your home world so that you could sit on a golden throne."

"It was my birthright," Loki hissed.

"No," I said, "it was greed. A lust for power. A wanting to belong." I swallowed, "I know Loki. I've been there."

"You keep saying that and yet you never show the guts of someone who would give up anything for power."

"And don't you think there's a reason for that!" I shouted before lowering my voice, "I had your determination and I succeed in claiming a throne but it wasn't what I truly wanted. Not really. All I wanted was to be seen as an equal, not as a monster to be frightened of.

"I'm the only Celestial Singer in existence. To them, I am an abomination. So, I forced them to love me. Eventually, I realized that power wasn't worth it. Friends was. Family was. So, I changed," I finished and turned to sit on the floor by the window.

There was silence before Loki sunk to the floor beside me, "you're right."

I looked over to him, blinking. "What?"

Loki gave a half sided smile, "I said 'you're right.'"

I smiled, "sorry, what was that again?"

He nudged my shoulder, chuckling. "I was always pushed to the side, because I was a frost giant, because I didn't belong. I was the monster parents tell their children about at night."

Wait, Loki wasn't Asgardian? That was new. I filed that away for later.

"I just wanted to be seen as an equal to Thor, the perfect son." Loki said but there was less venom in his voice and more wistfulness. "And it cost me everything," he turned to look at me, "well, almost everything. Somehow, you're still here."

"Because I'm not your weakness," I insisted, "I'm your strength."

Loki smirked, "agree to disagree?"

I gave a tiny smile and he leaned towards me, meeting his lips with mine. While our other kisses had been vicious and filled with desire, this one was slow and unhurried, a kiss that expressed our feelings for each other. A kiss that was bittersweet. A goodbye kiss.

Because tomorrow, the oxygen would run out.

Loki touched my cheeks, wiping away tears. "Why are you crying, love?"

I hadn't even realized I had been doing it. "A month ago I lost you but I still had my family. Now, I'm going to lose you and I don't even know if my family is still left."

Loki pulled me back to his chest, and he held me as we stared out into space and listened to Tony's last message to Pepper.

*I love you.* Loki's voice slid into my mind in harmony with the song playing between us.

*I love you too,* I replied. I turned back and kissed him, praying we somehow would survive.

My prayers were answered by the appearance of an angel. Well, not a literal angel but when my eyes adjusted to the light, I realized who was in front of me.

A women floated outside the window, one that looked vaguely familiar but I couldn't place. She smiled at us before picking up the ship and shooting off into space.

I grabbed onto the nearest stable surface and held on. I couldn't help the smile that blossomed across my face, we were going home.

Earth appeared in sight and I had never been happier to see a planet in my life. "Help me get Tony," Nebula appeared and I immediately raced up the stairs.

The ship landed outside the well lit Avengers facility and Nebula and I helped Tony down the stairs, Loki trailing behind us in case Tony fell.

Steve met us, taking Tony from us. Pepper ran up a second later, sobbing and the two embraced. 

Steve turned to me, pulling me in a hug and his eyes shifted to Loki. "He's okay," I whispered to Steve and Steve relaxed but he still eyed Loki every few seconds.

A raccoon came running over and put his paw in Nebulas hand. Maybe I was hallucinating. No one else seemed to find it weird.

I had never been more happy to see everyone in my life, I pulled Natasha into a hug, crying. "Peter?" She asked me. 

"I lost the kid," Tony choked out.

"It'll be okay," Pepper said although none of us really believed her.

We all gathered in the living room, the facility had been rebuilt and even though everything was the same, it felt foreign to me. Empty.

Not many were left, there were more gone than alive. The world was in shambles.... What had I done?

"Tony, we need..." Steve was saying.

"No," Tony cut him off, wheezing for air. Every time I looked at him I felt like crying, he was so thin, so close to death, "I needed you. Which trumps whatever you need. Doesn't anyone remember when I said we needed a suit of armour around the world?" He said, getting more agitated and Pepper put a hand on his arm, trying to calm him down. "Even if it did compromise some of our precious freedoms."

"Tony," Steve tried to cut in but Tony cut him off, getting to his feet. Pepper and Rhodey both reached out to push him back down but he pushed them back.

"If you find Thanos," Tony said, ripping the house for nanotech from his chest and pressing it into Steve's hand, "you take this, you put it on and you hide...you hide because..." Tony collapsed to the floor, breathing heavily.

We all rushed to his side, "I'm fine," he said, "I'm fine." He collapsed, unconscious.

Pepper and Rhodey stayed by Tony's side and I did as much for him as I could but my healing magic was limited to physical injuries and cuts. Not necessarily malnourishment. If Si was here, it would be a different story but both of my family's were now in shambles.

The women who saved us stomped by us, heading for the door. "Where are you going?" Natasha asked.

"To kill Thanos," Carol replied. Her voice sounded familiar but I still couldn't place her, had I fought her? I feel like I would've remembered that.

"Oh, we're coming," Loki spoke up and Carol studied us.

"I don't know if you guys remember," Natasha spoke up, "but we usually work as a team."

*Yeah, and how's that working out for you?* Loki said to me telepathically and I couldn't help but smirk.

"Besides, you don't know where he is," Steve spoke up.

"I know people who might," Carol spoke up.

I nodded, "and I know techniques to get information out of said people."

"There's no need," Nebula spoke up from the shadows, "I know where we can find Thanos." We all turned to her expectantly, "my father spent years trying to perfect me. And while he worked, he talked. He would tell me about his great plan. Even then, I would try to please him. I would always ask 'where would we go? When it was all over?" She crossed the room to stand with us, "and his answer was always the same. 'The Garden.'"

"Oh that's incredibly helpful," Rocket said. He tapped on a holographic coffee table, "I've got something even better." He pulled up a picture of Earth, "when Thanos snapped, Earth became ground zero for a catastrophic wave of cosmic energy unlike any other. Until, two days ago, here." Another image of an unknown planet to me appeared.

Natasha leaned towards the planet, "he used the stones again."

I exchanged looks with Loki and Carol, we could bring everyone back.

Bruce noticed the look, "hey, hey, hey, we'd be going in shorthanded."

"Not this time," I said, flashing my fangs.

"Look, he's got the stones, so..." Rhodey started to say but Carol interrupted.

"Then let's get him," her eyes darted to the image of Fury, a sad look in her eyes. "Use them to bring everyone back."

"Just like that?" Bruce asked.

"Yeah," Steve said, a hardened look I rarely saw coming over his face. "Just like that."

"Even if there is a small chance that we can undo this," Natasha said, "I mean, we owe it to everyone who's not in this room to try."

"If we do this, how do we know it's going to end any differently than it did before?" Bruce said, trying to reason with us but we were beyond reasoning.

"Because before you didn't have me." Carol said.

"Or me," I added. I nodded at Carol, "he caught me by surprise last time. It won't happen again." She smiled at me and I cursed my memory, trying to remember how I knew her.

"Hey new girl," Rhodey cut in, "everybody in this room is about that superhero life. And if you don't mind my asking, where the hell have you been all this time?

"There are a lot of other planets in the universe," Carol said, not phased at all by Rhodey's aggressiveness, "and unfortunately they didn't have you guys."

Thor cleared his throat and got to his fee, he crossed to Captain Marvel, holding out his hand and calling his new axe over. Carol didn't flinch and simply smirked. "I like this one," he declared.

Loki rolled his eyes, "always so dramatic Loki."

"You're just mad because when I did the same thing to you, you screamed." Thor patted his brother on his shoulder.

"I didn't scream," Loki said to me as we left the room.

"Sure you didn't," I smirked. "Come on, Nebula and Rocket fixed the ship so this time we won't suffocate in space."

"Let's go get this son of a bitch." Steve said.

It wasn't long until we were all suited up and on the ship. "Okay," Rocket asked as we took off. "Who hasn't been to space?" A few people raised their hands, "don't throw up on my ship."

We took off for The Garden, I watched as Steve clutched the seat tightly. *Don't worry,* I sent to him telepathically. *I won't let you die again.*

*Thanks Kai.* He said sarcastically, *that makes me feel so much better.*

We arrived at the planet and I finally let myself hope, hope that we'd bring everyone back. I clutched Loki's hand, we could do this.

***

I stared at Thanos' decapitated head, numb. The stones were gone, destroyed. There was no going back.

Thor had sliced the head off and then stumbled out to the farm where he fell to his knees. Loki was trying to comfort him, although I assumed he was failing because Thor was calling up a pretty bad lightning storm.

None of the others were consolable either. Maybe if the Eternity Stone was working...no, I tried not to let myself think. Io and Ty had been dusted along with everyone else and without them, I doubted I could get the stone to work. Besides, it was unresponsive. I had already put my hope in something and it had failed.

Steve and Nat were sitting on the ground by the fire and the boiling over stew. "Is there nothing we can do? Maybe the Eternity Stone..."

I shook my head, "the stone is dead. Besides, Io and Ty got dusted and they seemed to be the only ones who could control it." I said bitterly.

"So, its over," Natasha said. "We can't get them back."

I heard a crack of thunder and turned to see Thor shooting back for the ship, it seemed to break us out of our shock and we began to move, making our way for the ship.

Loki waited for me to come out and then pulled me into a hug, I clung to him tightly. I knew we were both thinking the same, terrible, thought. We had both survived, we had each other and even Thor was still alive. We were the luckiest.

***

"What do we do now?" Loki asked as we lay in bed that night, him stroking my bare back.

I sighed, "I don't know."

Loki frowned, thinking. "I have no home left. Asgard is destroyed and half of my people are missing." He didn't say it sadly, more as a statement of fact. "All I have is you."

"And Thor," I added.

Loki gave a tiny smile, "right and my brother. Although, he doesn't necessarily provide the same comforts you do," he trailed a hand low on my back and squeezed, leaning over to kiss me.

We got distracted for a while until Loki rolled off of me and I sat up, staring down at him. "So, what do you want to do?"

"I'm going to hunt down my people, I assume Thor will join me. And, you? Will you come?"

I thought about it, I could leave and fly off into space, never to return. The Compound was filled with unwanted reminders of the ones we had lost. I could go and be happy with Loki, or as happy as you can be while you're hunting down a group of traumatized refugees.

But, there were people here who needed me. People who were falling apart and people who would need my help to rebuild. "I can't," I finally said, "I'm needed here."

Loki nodded, "I understand." He reached up and cupped my face, "I'll miss you."

"Same here," I turned my head and kissed his palm. "Will you visit me?"

"As often as I can," he said.

"When I'm done here, I'll come find you." I promised.

"Well, I don't leave until the morning," Loki said, "time to shower me with your heartfelt goodbyes."

I rolled my eyes, "maybe you can sleep in a cold bed," I teased before leaning down and kissing him, his hands trailed across my body, making me moan his name.

"I love it when you say my name like that," he smirked, rolling on top of me.

HIs lips trailed across my skin, biting and liking as he went and I withered underneath him, telling him exactly what I wanted. He headed my requests and it wasn't long until he had wrung pleasure from every inch of me.

I returned the favor, antagonizing him as I slowly worked my way down his body until he was begging me for exactly what he wanted. I gave it to him and when he cried out my name I was happy no one was in the rooms around us.

I fell asleep next to him, still twisted around him, wondering if I should change my mind and go with him.

But, we had a few thousand years together. My friends here wouldn't last as long, I needed to make sure that Tony was okay and that Natasha was okay and Steve was okay. 'Okay' seemed to be the only thing that I could give them, I doubted any of us would be truly happy again.

I woke up to Loki kissing me, "I'll be back," he promised, slipping from the bed. I woke up to see him off, giving Thor a hug as well. I kissed Loki one last time before he and his brother vanished in the bifrost.

I felt the bond stretch between us but I could still feel him. *Love you.* I sent telepathically.

*Love you too.* Loki replied and then he went silent.

I took a deep breath, turning back to the Compound to find Carol standing in the shadows created by the slowly rising sun. I nodded to her, still trying to place her. "You don't recognize me, do you?" She asked. 

I swallowed, "I'm sorry. I know I've met you before but..." 

Carol waved a hand, "it's alright. I worked for Pegasus, test flying planes." 

I blinked a few times as everything clicked into place. "You're the pilot who died," I gasped, "Maria Rambeau's...friend?"

Carol nodded, "you were talking to Dr. Lawson, we only met for a brief moment but I could feel the power radiating off of you. I hadn't met many powerful women besides you and Dr. Lawson. You helped me realize that I needed to be unapologetic about my confidence and my powers. When I died, I knew you would've made the same call. I didn't die that day but it felt like I did but I was reborn as something infinitely better." 

I smiled, "I'm glad I got to see you again. And I'm glad you're here." 

Carol sighed, "well, I won't be for much longer. I'm leaving. The universe is big and there's a lot of other places that Thanos decimated. They're going to need help. Will you come?" 

I hesitated, wondering about my answer but I already knew it, deep down. "I would but I can't." I glanced back towards the Compound, "not until I know that what remains of my family is going to be okay." 

"That might take a while," Carol warned.

"I've got time," I said as my immortality seemed to weigh down on me. "Good luck. Keep in contact." 

"I will," Carol said with a wink before shooting off into the sky. I watched her go, the golden light carving a path through the dawn and I realized how lucky I was to know such powerful women as well. 

I turned back to the Compound, squaring my shoulders. I wouldn't be doing a job as great as Carol's but my job was going to be just as hard. I knew everyone would be waking up soon. I decided to make breakfast, maybe pancake smiley faces would cheer everyone up.

I seriously doubted it but I was out of other options, so pancake smiley faces was it.


	11. Chapter Ten

Kai

FOUR MONTHS LATER

The compound was emptying out. Carol had taken to the stars, helping people all over the galaxy in response to the catastrophe that was Thanos. Rocket and Nebula were helping, trying to keep the peace in as many star systems as possible. Okoye was running Wakanda in T'Challa's absence and it was the only country that hadn't run into the ground. Rhodey was out working for the US government, trying to keep America from collapsing.

Steve, Tony, Pepper, Natasha, Bruce and I were left. But, I feared it wouldn't be for long. Tony and I had been talking, helping him design a house upstate that would be the perfect retirement plan. He showed me the ring he had prepared for Pepper.

Steve was constantly driving between here and New York, starting up some sort of support group downtown. I had gone to the first meeting to support him but I hadn't been back sense, it made me miss Loki and Peter and even the other Avengers I had only known for a short time.

It was a quiet day, although most days were quite now. I was working with Natasha to set up an intergalactic channel so we could keep in touch with everyone, Okoye had some sort of transmitter in Wakanda that we were trying to hook up too.

Natasha and I were trying to figure out where certain wires went and arguing over where the connection went. "Okay wait," I said, taking the remote from her, "I think we're supposed to connect to the WIFI first." I clicked on it, "what's the password?"

"HulksGreenAss," Natasha deadpanned and I turned to her, cracking a grin that made my cheeks hurt because I hadn't smiled in a while.

"Are you kidding me?"

Natasha grabbed the remote back from me and typed in the password, the WIFI connected. "I'm serious," she said, a matching grin on her face. We both laughed but our laughter faded quickly, it felt wrong to laugh when so many had died.

"Do you ever feel..." I trailed off, unsure how to phrase it. "Never mind," I used the touchscreen to find the Wakanda transmitter.

"Guilty?" Nat finished for me, "that we're laughing while so many people are dead?"

I nodded, "yeah." I let out a dark chuckle, "I feel even worse because I didn't lose everything. I still have Loki, I still have all of you," I didn't mention Clint, it was a touchy subject. "I feel like I got lucky."

Natasha nodded, "lucky," she repeated, "a strange concept." The channel connected and Okoye popped up, "hey!" Natasha let out a little cheer although her smile didn't reach her eyes.

"Brilliant," Okoye said, "now we can talk to everyone." A moment later, Carol, Rhodey, Rocket and Nebula appeared. "This channel will always be open for whoever needs to discuss things."

We talked for a minute although it felt...wrong. As if we all had pieces missing, which was true. The channel slowly went dark until it was just me and Nat again.

I sighed, "well, what do you want for dinner?"

She shrugged, "what do we have left?"

"Grilled cheese?" I suggested.

The aroma of food caught my nose and I turned to see Tony and Pepper come in, both smiling. "We bought a peace offering," Tony said, putting the take out boxes down. "You've gotta love New York, they literally stayed open through the apocalypse."

I instantly noticed the ring on Pepper's finger. "Congrats!" I said, hugging her. I was happy for them but they reminded me of my other half that was missing, halfway across the galaxy.

Pepper told us all about how Tony had proposed over the box of food and then she leaned in close, "we're getting married tomorrow."

I choked, "that gives us no time to plan!"

"We don't want a big wedding. Just a city hall thing," Tony waved a hand, "it doesn't feel right to throw a party right now."

I nodded in understanding, "we're invited right?"

"Of course," Tony rolled his eyes, "you're representing my entire family side since you know, everyone else has died tragically and you're technically my godmother."

Silence descended, "where's Steve and Bruce?" Natasha asked to break the silence although I was sure she already knew.

"Steve's got a place in Brooklyn now," Tony said, "since real estate has just gone to absolute crap and he can finally afford it. And Bruce," Tony winced, "he's not leaving the lab. He's been talking about moving into a lab that specializes in Gamma. He won't say what he's doing though."

I nodded, "oh."

We forced small talk, trying to ignore the missing place at the table and the extra food that Tony had subconsciously brought. Nat and I stored it in the fridge for tomorrow.

Tony and Pepper would stay the night here and then after their city hall marriage, they'd move upstate.

I climbed into bed, glancing up at the stars. *Love you,* I sent telepathically, knowing Loki could hear me. I wondered where he was tonight.

"I love you too," a voice spoke from behind me and I spun around to see Loki leaning against the wall and smirking.

I shrieked, running to him and throwing myself into his arms. He spun me around, laughing and I leaned down to kiss him, pushing him back against the wall.

"I should leave more often," he hummed, his eyes rolling as I moved my lips across his neck. His hands twirled up in my hair and he pulled my face up to his lips and I kissed him ferociously, letting him feel just how much I missed him.

"How about not," I replied, breathless.

He pulled back to stare at me. "Norns, you're beautiful." He kissed me gently, slowly, teasing me with his mouth. His hands ran up and down my body, causing goosebumps to appear.

The kiss increased in heat and I tightened my arms around his neck as he pinned me back against the wall, hiking up the t-shirt I had worn to bed and picking me up. I wrapped my legs around his waist and let him position me where he wanted me. We didn't even make it to the bed before we were both gasping in pleasure.

The stars seemed to wheel outside the window as I closed my eyes and let Loki's name fall from my lips, never more happy to be in his arms then right now.

We spent the rest of the night swapping stories in between kisses. I updated him on where everyone was and he updated me on the new situation with the Asguardians.

"We found them; Brunnhilde is still alive. They're in Norway, building a new home." Loki explained, "I'll take you tomorrow."

"We'll have to go after the wedding," I quickly explained about Pepper and Tony. "Do you want to come?"

Loki hesitated, "I doubt I would be welcome."

"I think you're overestimating their hatred for you," I rolled my eyes, "I doubt anyone is thinking about New York right now, they're all focused on Thanos."

"There's always a bigger fish," Loki smirked. "I'll ask Stark in the morning."

I nodded and we stopped talking for a while until we both collapsed in exhaustion, falling asleep next to each other.

***

I woke up in my favorite place, curled up against Loki. I stretched and he pulled me closer, protesting.

Someone knocked on the door, "Kai?" Natasha's voice echoed softly, "do you wanna get ready with me for the wedding?"

I sat up, yawning. Loki rolled over, still asleep and I gave him a quick kiss before I went to get the door, putting on clothing as I went.

Natasha glanced in when I opened the door, "I thought I heard you two last night," she smirked. "Come on, Pepper's already in my room."

Most of the doors in the hallway were closed, name tags still glistening but we didn't look at them as we went. The names were too painful. This entire facility felt like one big memorial.

The wedding was short and I knew it bothered Tony a little bit that the wedding was so small but he didn't complain. I knew he probably had plans to shout his love for Pepper to the stars and invite everyone on the planet to bask in her beauty but now, it was just us.

But, that was enough.

Loki ended up coming and stood silently beside me as the wedding went quickly. It appeared a lot of people were doing similar things because courthouse weddings were the new thing.

We went out to dinner afterwards, a few fancy restaurants were still open and with the name of Tony Stark we all managed to get in without reservations. Our party was a large size now a days: me, Loki, Nat, Steve, Bruce, Pepper, Tony, Thor, and Rhodey. For that one night we pushed our differences aside and just tried to have fun.

I think we all actually laughed at least once that night. For the first time, I thought that we might be okay.

I smiled across the table at Steve and he had seemed to come to the same conclusion I had. We would never be truly perfect again but we'd stitched together a family again.

***

THREE YEARS LATER

The sun rose over the ocean and painted New Asgard in sparkling golden light. Loki and I had a house on the edge of the cliff, close to where his father had died. We were at the edge of the town, far away from the other Asgardians.

It had been three years since Thanos had destroyed the stones. Three years since Pepper and Tony had gotten married (two years since Morgan was born) and one year since Banner became Professor Hulk.

Loki and I had helped build up New Asgard and rotated our time between trying to get Thor out of the house and making sure everyone else was still alive.

Out of the ten of us that I regularly saw, only Loki and I and Pepper and Tony were truly living life again. Pepper and Tony lived in Upstate New York with a cute little girl and perfect lake house with miles of land for Morgan to grow up and play on.

Natasha was still living at the compound and I spent a lot of weekends with her, just so she wasn't alone. She was teaching me ballet and we spent days in the training room, twirling away our fears. I thought I was getting pretty good at it.

Sometimes Natasha and I would go out, sometimes she would come to New Asgard but she hated to leave the channel just in case someone needed her. So, I split my time between New Asgard and the Compound and threw in a few visits to everyone else.

This weekend, I was babysitting Morgan for Pepper and Tony while they went to a conference in LA. They were dropping her off at the compound in a few hours.

Natasha was leaving to try and find Clint the moment we arrived. Since me and Loki would be in the compound, she was fine with leaving it for a little while. I told her to be careful and she vanished into the quinjet, determined to bring him home.

Loki and I started making lunch and I heard the car pull up and FRIDAY alerted us that Tony had arrived.

"Did you tell Stark I was going to be here too?" Loki asked as we made our way to the living room.

I grinned, "nope!"

"Kai!" Little Morgan ran right up to me, giving me a big hug before, to all of our surprise, she latched onto Loki's leg.

"Loki," she grinned, hugging his leg.

"Hi princess," Loki replied, seemingly at a loss for what to do. He managed to detach her from his leg but she stayed by him, holding onto his jacket.

Pepper gave me a list of emergency contacts, a bag of snacks, diapers and wipes. "Don't worry," I assured her, "we got it."

Pepper eyed Loki, "you know, this could be good for you two," she smirked.

I rolled my eyes, "don't expect a baby announcement anytime soon."

Tony crossed to Loki and Morgan switched from Loki's leg to his leg. Tony got up close to Loki and I saw Loki tense, expecting ridicule or threats.

Instead, Tony clapped him on the shoulder, "try not to burn down the house," he smirked at Loki and then turned to Morgan, kissing her forehead, "and don't go teaching her any godly mischief tricks. She's already too mischievous already."

"Bye daddy, bye mommy!" Morgan said, tears in her eyes. "Come back soon!"

"We will!" Pepper replied, both of them kissing their daughter. "I love you!"

"I love you five hundred!" Morgan replied. She ran to the window and watched them drive off, her little fingers leaving behind prints.

Loki and I exchanged glances. "So, Morgan, do you want to learn how to throw knives?" Loki teased.

I hit him in the shoulder, "shut up." I rifled through the bag and pulled out a book on ballet. "Do you like ballet?" I asked Morgan.

"YES!"

I conjured my ballet shoes that Nat had given me, "do you wanna dance with me?"

"YES!"

I taught Morgan how to do a few simple moves, Loki sending a video to Pepper and Tony.

Afterwards, we had lunch and then Pepper's schedule suggested she take a nap. Morgan had been so easy throughout the entire day that I thought her taking a nap would be easy.

Unfortunately, I was wrong.

Morgan did not want to take a nap, she screamed and cried and threw stuff off of her bed, stuffed animals and toys going everywhere.

Loki walked over, sitting down on the bed beside her and flicked his fingers, creating an illusion of the galaxy. Morgan quieted, leaning back on Loki's chest to watch as he moved the stars around and told her about each constellation. He showed her images of Asgard and I curled up on a chair, watching them.

It wasn't long until Morgan fell into a peaceful sleep, her hand curled around some of Loki's hair. He gently slid from her grasp and came back over to me.

He picked me up from the chair and carried me from the room, closing the door behind him and kissing me. He set me down on the back of the nearest couch and began to pull my shirt off.

"Wait, there's a kid in there," I whispered.

"She's asleep," Loki said. "I'll just erase her memory if she comes out."

I rolled my eyes, mimicking his voice, "I don't know how I erased all of your daughters memories Stark, it was a total accident."

Loki kissed me and I kissed him back, quickly forgetting about Morgan on the other side of the door.

We collapsed onto the couch a few minutes later, both basking in pleasure.

"You know," Loki spoke up hesitantly, "Morgan reminds me of someone." He turned his emerald eyes on me and I knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Those visions," I said, recalling those visions we had seen almost nine years ago. Of children of our own. I swallowed, "you saw them too?"

"Three of them," he confirmed. "Two girls, one boy."

We sat in silence, thinking about them. "Did you even want kids?" Loki asked.

I frowned, "honestly, I never even entertained the idea. I was always in danger as the only Celestial Singer in existence and I knew my kids would have to spend a life looking over their shoulder. And when the war started," I shook my head, "I couldn't bring a child into that." I was 5000 years old and I had done everything but have children, I didn't want to end up like my mother. I glanced at Loki, "what about you?"

Loki seemed to ponder the question, "I never even thought about it. There was no one I trusted enough to get that close too." He sighed, playing with my hair, "except you. But, I can't have kids now. Not with the world like this."

I opened my mouth to reply but the door to Morgan's bedroom opened and she came out, rubbing her eyes. "Morgan, are you okay?" I asked her.

She shook her head, "I had a bad dream."

"Oh no," I held out my hands and she climbed into my lap. "About what?"

"Glowing rocks," she said and Loki and I exchanged panicked glances. "And a purple man."

"What happened in your dream?" Loki asked softly.

"The orange rock ate me," Morgan said, "and then I saw lots of people crying. There was a talking tree and a little green girl." She frowned, "I don't know why but I was sad for them."

*Stark isn't magical, right?* Loki asked me.

*Not that I know of. Do you think she actually saw them? Are they stuck in the soul stone?*

*The Soul Stone was destroyed.*

*Maybe it wasn't.* I said hopefully, maybe there was a chance we could get everyone back. We questioned Morgan about her dream but didn't learn anything new. Finally, she grew bored and went off to play with some of her toys.

Loki and I continued to throw theories back and forth for a while until Morgan came up to us, letting us know she was hungry.

Loki and I didn't tend to eat three meals a day so I had completely spaced. She really wanted a PB&J so it was easy to make.

Then, she watched a movie and went to bed, falling asleep quickly.

Loki and I stood at her door, watching her sleep. "I thought raising kids was supposed to be hard," I said, "are we just really good at it?"

Loki shrugged, "I guess?"

We curled up on the couch, "do you really think her dream meant anything?"

"No," Loki said, "it couldn't have. The stones are destroyed."

"But she saw Groot and Gamora. And I doubt Tony and Pepper tell stories about them around the dinner table."

Loki frowned, "did Thanos lie about the stones?"

"I don't know, maybe? Do you think he hid them somewhere in the universe?"

"After Stark comes back, we can fly out and have a look."

"I'll call Carol," I said, making to get up from the couch but Loki pulled me back.

"Call her later," he said, kissing my neck. I reveled in the feeling of his lips on my skin for a minute before pulling away.

"I'll be back," I promised before making my way to the living room to make the call.

Carol promised to keep an eye out, although she would know if someone had found an infinity stone.

I slept restlessly that night, between my nightmares, Loki's kisses and Morgan coming in asking for a drink, I didn't get much sleep.

Pepper and Tony came back in time for dinner that night, Natasha and Steve were home as well and we had the first family dinner in a while.

After that, everyone left and I shadow travelled us back to our home in Norway. The house felt strangely small and empty.

I couldn't help but wonder if there was any sort of a chance in finding them again.

***

FIVE YEARS LATER

Kai

Loki and I crouched behind a rock, listening. We were on the planet Aursi and we were hunting a dragon.

New Asgard was perfect except for its vastly empty magical supplies. Back on Asgard there had been entire rooms filled with ingredients for potions and magical artifacts. Now, we had to start from scratch all over again to build back up the supplies.

I could hear it shuffling around, trying to smell us out but Loki and I had woven flowers through our hair and clothes to mask our scent.

Adrenaline thrummed through me, reminding me of all the adventures I had been on before my world had turned upside down. I almost expected to see Vin and Evan hiding in the trees and Ayla camouflaged in the grass.

The dragon scrapped at the rock and we both tensed up, gripping our daggers tightly. I could see it's shadow as it climbed the rock, the heat from its body making Loki's lips crack and sweat bead on my forehead.

It's neck craned over the rock, peering into the trees and I tensed, poised to strike. It's neck moved farther out until it was right above us.

I stabbed upwards, aiming for the weak spot between two scales and it roared, spewing fire all over the place. It snapped downwards and the two of us rolled out of the way, 

We darted to opposite sides, stabbing with our needle point knives as accurately as possible.

"I think we're just making it angry!" I shouted out to Loki as the dragon roared.

Loki laughed, "really, what gave you that impression?"

I laughed and the dragon honed in on my location, hitting me with his tail and I flew backwards, into a tree and slid to the ground, right at the dragons feet. "Fantastic," I muttered as it's head lowered to look at me and it pinned me down with one huge claw. It chuckled, it's eyes glinting with obvious intelligence. Fire began to heat in the back of it's throat, ready to cook me alive.

I sighed, it wouldn't kill me but it was going to hurt like hell.

It opened its mouth but suddenly, a whip of fire wrapped around it's nose, yanking it's mouth closed again. The dragon and I blinked in surprise and I turned to see Loki, equally surprised, holding the other end of the burning rope, one of his eyes glowing gold.

He blinked and his eye faded back to normal but so did the whip.

The dragon lunged for me but I shadow travelled from it's claw, landing next to Loki. "Nice one!" I shouted out, "I guess you can tap into my magic!"

Loki threw his arms out, his hands glowing like the sun and he grinned. "Is this how you feel all the time?"

"Basically!" I shouted back and we both shot beams of energy at the dragon, directly into its eyes.

Blinded, the dragon roared and we raced for it, determined to take what we needed. I raced up it's side, aimed my knife and drove it deep into his eye, causing the dragon to shudder and fall to the ground, dead.

"Well, that wasn't so hard," Loki commented, his glowing hands having faded. "Once we pry off as many scales as we can carry, we should head home."

I nodded, using my vibranium blade - courtesy of Wakanda - and my magic to pry off scale after scale. I felt a little bad for doing this to the dragon but these scales would be ground up into dragon powder and were one of the key ingredients in spells.

We pried off half of its pelt before it began to grow dark. "We need to get back to the ship, the nocturnal animals are ten times as bad."

We levitated and carried the scales back to the ship, packing them in rows in the storage bay.

We climbed in the main part of the ship to hear an annoying beeping coming from the channel Natasha and I had put up five years ago.

I frowned, switching it on to find several channels open, everyone planning on meeting up back on Earth. Something had happened.

I wasn't sure if it was good or bad.

"Oh that's very comforting," Rocket was saying, "I'll sleep better at night knowing the Ant-Guy isn't two years old anymore."

This was the worst time to walk in on this conversation.

"Just, get back here," Natasha said, "we have a chance Rocket. And we're going to take it."

Rocket's ears drooped, "I know. I just don't know if I can handle another failure."

Natasha turned to me, "Kai, Loki, we're going to need your help." She explained, "we might've found a way to get everyone back."

Suddenly, Scott Lang was filling the screen. I thought he was dead? "Wow, you guys are so much taller in person!" He exclaimed, "and you're so much less scary," he said to Loki which seemed to miff him. "Basically, we figured out how to time travel."

I blinked, "what?"

"Yeah, we're going to go back in time, get the stones and then bring everyone back!"

"Really?"

"Yes! Now, hurry home! We're getting the band back together!"

"We're on our way!" I said before the screen went dark. 

I turned to Loki, "oh my gosh!" I squealed, "we're going to get everyone back!"

Loki smiled at my excitement, "don't get too excited dear. It might not work."

"I know but it's still worth a shot!" I scrambled to the pilots seat, "next stop, Earth!"


	12. Chapter Eleven

Kai

By the time we arrived, everyone else was already there. Rhodey, Tony, Steve, Natasha, Nebula, Rocket, Scott, Clint - who was apparently not killing people anymore -, Bruce - who was permanently green - and Thor - who looked even worse than the last time we saw him.

It was a quick reunion, everyone was busy building the time machine and it was almost complete when we arrived.

We spent the next week brainstorming, trying to pick the right time to find the stones. "Guys, if you pick the right year, there are three stones in New York." Natasha said and we all blinked, realizing it was true.

"All thanks to me of course," Loki joked and we all laughed.

We finally figured out how it was going to work. The Mind Stone, Space Stone and Time Stone were all in New York in 2012. The Reality Stone was on Asgard in 2013. The Power Stone and the Soul Stone were in 2014.

"Loki can't go to New York or Asgard," Tony spoke up, "he's a fugitive on both and would be easily recognized."

"I also shouldn't go to either of those places," I spoke up, "I'd be able to sense myself and uh, would probably try and kill me."

"Great, so you two are going after the Soul Stone then, since Kai's pretty powerful and we have no idea what we're going to face up there. Loki will go with her for backup," Steve said and we figured out the rest of the teams.

In the end it would be; Tony, Steve, Scott, Bruce and Natasha would go after the three stones in New York. Clint, Rocket and Thor would go after the Reality Stone. And, Nebula, Rhodey, Loki and I would go and get the Power Stone and the Soul Stone.

Once the suits were complete, Clint had done his test run and we had finalized plans, we were ready to go.

I stood on the time machine thing that we had built, staring down into the quantum realm below us.

"See you in a minute," Natasha said, smiling. I turned to grin at Loki as our helmet all went up and he winked at me before we all shot off into the quantum realm.

We landed on Morag with Nebula and Rhodey. "Once Quill shows up, we'll go and get the Power Stone. You two take the ship to Vormir."

Loki and I used the Pym Particles to make the ship big and climbed on board. The coordinates were already preset so it wasn't long before we were shooting off for Vormir.

I couldn't help but feel excited, we were on our way to get everyone back!

***

The planet was mostly flat, except for one large mountain in the center. "That's gotta be it," I said and grabbed Loki's hand, shadow traveling us upwards.

Something slammed into us, keeping us from shadow traveling all the way up the mountain. We landed about halfway up, the most rocky and perilous climb lay before us.

I sighed, "typical." I spread my wings and scooped up Loki, soaring upwards. We made it only a few hundred feet before the wind buffeted us back onto the trail. "Okay, so it looks like the universe wants us to walk."

We began to climb, almost falling several times. I kept a close eye on Loki, I could survive the fall but I wasn't sure how fall proof Asgardians were.

"I bet the others don't have to climb any mountains," I panted as we reached the top, only to be greeted with a floating man in a dark cloak. We both pulled out swords.

"Welcome," he said, "Loki, son of Laufey and Kaieada, daughter of Assyr." I blinked, lowering my sword.

"How do you know me?"

"It is my curse to know all who seek the Soul Stone." The man's voice sounded familiar and when he came further out into the light, I realized why.

"Red Skull," I swished my sword through the air, ready to cut off his head. "I thought you died."

"I was punished," the Red Skull said, "for using the stones too greedily. Now, I must guide others to a treasure I cannot hope to possess."

A fitting punishment, if I do say so myself.

He glided up the mountainside and we followed him wearily, until we reached the edge of a cliff.

"You should know," the Red Skull said, his voice echoing around us. "It extracts a terrible price."

I swallowed, exchanging looks with Loki. "How bad could it be?" I said, trying for a smile.

"We all think that at first," the Red Skull said, turning to stare out over the cliff. "We are all wrong."

Loki's hand grabbed mine and I squeezed, realizing my hand was shaking. "What you seek," he said as he stood at the edge of the cliff, "lies in front of you. As does what you fear."

"A price," Red Skull continued, "A soul holds a special place among the Infinity Stones. One might say it has a certain wisdom. To ensure that whoever possesses it understands its power, the Stone demands a sacrifice."

No.

"In order to take the stone, you must lose that which you love. A soul for a soul. What is done cannot be undone."

The reality of the situation slammed into me as I stared off the side of the cliff. This was why Gamora had not returned.

Loki and I exchanged glances and I reached out, grabbing his hand and pulled him away from the edge of the cliff and hopefully, out of earshot of the Red Skull.

"Okay, this is an easy decision to make," I said.

"Easy?" Loki said in disbelief, "one of us has to die!"

I shook my head, "but I can't die. I just have to throw myself off the cliff and I'll pass out for a few hours and then bam, we get the stone."

Loki hesitated, "I don't think that would work. He said 'what is done cannot be undone.' What if you don't come back?"

"Then you can just bring me back when you get the Soul Stone and the Time Stone," I suggested. 

Loki shook his head, "no, this is powerful magic. If you died here, I could not bring you back."

I swallowed, "is there anyone else in 2014 that we could throw off this cliff? We just have to kill someone we love, not what we love most."

Loki thought about it, "no, at least no one that we could get too."

"We could kidnap Thor," I suggested. "You love him, right?"

"We have to sacrifice the things we love," Loki reminded me, "those two things would've been my mother or you. And my mother is dead. Besides, we don't have enough Pym particles."

I swallowed, "okay, so one of us has to go over the side. And obviously it has to be me."

"No," Loki said, "I won't let you."

"I'm literally unkillable," I argued back. Which wasn't necessarily true unless the cliff happened to be made out of Soul Eater metal. "It makes sense for it to be me."

"The whole point is to lose what you lost. If you walk away unscathed, then it won't work."

"We don't know that." I thought about it, "I have an idea. I'll jump off the cliff and if it doesn't work, we think of something else."

"But what if you die?" Loki asked, "I can't let you take that risk."

"And what do you propose?" I crossed my arms, there was nothing he could do unless he threw himself over.

I saw the decision he made instantly and immediately knew he was going to throw himself over. "Don't even think about it," I used my magic to wrap him in beams of energy. He collapsed to the ground, completely tied up.

"Kai!" Loki shouted, "don't do it! You might not come back!"

"I love you," I said before I took off running for the cliffs edge.

"KAI!" Loki shouted and I turned to see him trying to untie himself, using his magic.

I didn't have time to hesitate. I jumped.

The ground raced up for me, I heard Loki scream and then, everything went dark.

***

Loki

My eyes flew open, "Kai!" I shouted, sitting up.

I blinked, realizing I was sitting in a pool of water, something glowing in my right hand. I shakingly opened my fingers, staring down at Soul Stone.

Six years ago, this would've been all I ever wanted. To hold an infinity stone in my hand and feel the power coursing through me. But now, it was nothing compared to the horror that I might have lost Kai.

It had worked, which meant Kai was either still alive but bloodied up, or; she was dead.

The cliff was a few miles away and I took off running, teleporting in bursts across the plains, heading for the base of the cliff.

Kai had to be there, she had to be.

I reached the bottom of the cliff but found nothing, not even blood. Her body was gone.

Hope soared inside of me, maybe she was alive.

"KAI!" I shouted out, my desperation echoing across the cliffside. "KAI!"

My panic grew with each call of her name and I heard no response. I reached out with my mind, with my bond, with my very soul but I felt nothing.

It was as if she had been wiped from existence.

***

Kai

"Kai?" I heard someone saying my name, shaking me. "Kai?"

I opened my eyes and blinked a few times, wondering why everything was orange.

I focused on the person in front of me and gasped, "Bucky?" My voice broke as I realized it really was him, he was alive!

"Bucky!" I pulled him into a hug, "I thought you were dead!"

Bucky pulled back a little, giving me an odd look. "Kai," he said, "I think we are dead."

I looked around again, many of the people I had known from Earth were here. Including Peter who I couldn't help but pull into a hug next. "Where are we?"

"We don't know," Bucky explained, "we all woke up here after...after Thanos."

I stood up, taking in the flat expanse of orange ground and sky. It was empty here, an orange void filled with the dead.

"What are you doing here?" I turned to see surprise etched across Doctor Strange's face. "You aren't supposed to be here!"

I quickly explained what we were doing, "we found a way to bring you all back. We're gathering the stones through time travel and then once we have them all, we'll reverse the snap." I looked around, "I had to throw myself off a cliff to get the soul stone. Maybe that's why I'm here?"

"No," Strange said, "if you're dead than that means..." he trailed off, muttering to himself. "I saw 14 million versions of the future Kai, you need to be alive. You have to be alive for us all to live."

"But I can't die Stephen!" I said, "throwing myself off a cliff to get the soul stone shouldn't have killed me."

"Kai, you might be ancient but you do not understand the complexity of some forms of magic," Strange said, rubbing his forehead. "What exactly were you told?"

I gave him a rundown on what Red Skull had said.

"What is done cannot be undone," Strange repeated under his breath. "Kai, you'd better be right about this or you just screwed the universe over."

"Great," I sighed, "so it'll once again be my fault if the universe deteriorates."

"Again?" Peter whispered to Bucky.

"I'll explain later," Bucky said back.

"Well," Strange said, "luckily, there's a backup plan."

I sighed in relief, "oh good."

"But if you sacrificed yourself for the soul stone, you won't be coming back with the rest of us."

Oh, fantastic.

I don't know how much time had passed; there was no shadows, no sun, no light changes to show night and day but I tried to enjoy the time I had with the people I hadn't seen in five years.

Peter stayed glued to my side the entire time and so did Bucky, asking me about Tony and Steve. I told them how it was, that Steve was in a support group and Tony had a baby girl.

Finally, I felt a sharp stab of pain in my head. "Kai!" Peter shouted, grabbing my hand, "you're fading! Mr. Strange! Mr. Strange!" Peter shouted, running off to get Dr. Strange.

My world went black before Peter could get to him.

***

Loki

My voice was hoarse from shouting out for Kai. I was on my knees at the bottom of the cliff, freezing, trying to think of anything to bring her back.

My magic was spent for reaching out for her, trying to find her.

I had already gone back up the cliff and screamed at the Red Skull but he was impossible to kill.

"Please," I looked upwards, pleading to whatever universal thing controlled this ancient magic.

I felt a flicker, like a candle in a storm, about to go out. I mentally cupped my hand around the flame, reaching out and grabbing hold of the flicker.

It felt like Kai, it had to be her. She was alive.

The snow around the ground began to blow in a circular pattern, catching on the markings on the ground. The snow began to form the shape of a body until it began to resemble Kai.

A huge blast of snow blew over the body on the ground and when it cleared, Kai was laying there, unconscious.

She sat up and gasped, her eyes flying open. "Loki?" She gasped, her eyes focusing on me.

I had never been more happy to hear my name in my entire life. "Kai," I couldn't help the sob that escaped my throat. I pulled her into a hug, crushing her against me.

"It worked," Kai gasped, "Loki, I saw them! I saw them all!" Her smile was the best thing I had ever seen.

I traced her face with my fingers, "Kai," I said her name again, kissing her.

"Did you get it?" She asked between kisses, "did you get the stone?"

I pulled the soul stone out of my pocket, "I did."

She sighed in relief, "come on, let's go home."

She pulled me to my feet but I couldn't let her go, instead I pulled her into a hug, practically trembling. "I understand," I finally said, "I understand how you felt when I died," I whispered, "I'm sorry I argued with you about it."

Kai nodded against my shoulder, "it's okay. Let's go home."

We made our way back to the ship and after we shrunk it we synced up our time clocks and shot back into the quantum realm.

We all materialized at the same time, grinning. "Did we do it? Did we really get them all?" Tony asked.

I glanced around, all six. I couldn't help but grin, "we did!" Kai said.

We spent the rest of the night celebrating and making blueprints for a gauntlet that could hold them all.

Kai and I spent the night celebrating in our own way, twisted up in sheets. When Kai finally fell asleep, I stayed up, watching her breathe in the moonlight. I was scared to take my eyes off of her, scared she'd vanish again.

I ran my fingers through her hair and thought about the visions we had had. I didn't want to lose her again. I couldn't.

I traced a hand down her back, I wanted her by my side for the rest of my life.

And I would ensure that she was safe for the rest of her life.

***

Kai

Tony and Rocket had been up all night making the gauntlet and I walked into the room with Loki to find it sitting in the middle of the room, everyone standing around it.

"It has to be me," the Hulk was saying. "I have the highest likelihood of surviving."

"Um," I raised my hand, "actually, I can't die. I should probably do it."

"Yeah but the radiation is mostly gamma so it would affect me less." The Hulk argued, "besides, the reality stone hates you."

"Did you tell everyone about that?" I asked Thor.

"Yeah, pretty much." Thor said, drinking from a beer bottle.

The Hulk put on the gauntlet, the lights running up and down his arms, causing him to gasp in pain. "Are you okay?" Tony shouted.

"Yeah," Bruce said after a minute. "Okay, are you ready?"

"FRIDAY, activate Barn Door Protocol just in case." Tony said and the entire base went on lockdown. We all put up shields, Loki, Thor and I behind one.

"Okay," Bruce took a deep breath and snapped his fingers.

Light flowed out from his hands, blinding me temporarily and when my vision cleared, Bruce was on the floor, his arm on fire.

Tony put it out with water from his suit and I crouched beside him, starting to heal his arm.

"Did it work?" Steve asked, I turned to see Scott by the window. Clint's phone buzzed, his wife calling. It worked!

Bruce blinked open his eyes, looking up. "LOOK OUT!" He shouted and before I could look up, my entire world exploded.


	13. Chapter Twelve

I woke up choking on dust and ash. I couldn't see anything. "Hello?" I reached out for everyone's minds, trying to find them.

Loki was nearby, still unconscious but alive. Clint had the gauntlet. Scott was rescuing Bruce, Rocket and Rhodey. Tony, Steve and Thor were confronting Thanos and I was buried under an immeasurable amount of rubble, my legs were pinned and my torso was pinned down by metal beams, I couldn't move without risking impaling myself.

I began to shake, realizing I was stuck here, I couldn't move. I began to hyperventilate as I panicked, remembering another dark place, another crushing weight, another place where I had been kept for a century, slowly dying and slowly being crushed.

I gasped for air, choking on the dust around me, trembling and causing the debris to shift even more. I was going to die here...I was going to die here. Alone.

I couldn't help but remember the Soul Eater cavern my mother had locked me in to grow stronger. She had locked me in a room full of the dark stone, covered in the blood of a hundred Soul Eaters. The blood had seeped into the rock, turning the entire cavern into a silent tomb for Celestial Singers.

I had been chained down there in the darkness and had slowly begun to petrify without food and water and without access to my magic.

I tried to push the memories down, tried to focus.

Kai? Loki's voice echoed in my mind and I tried to focus on it, tried to cling to reality. I'm coming love.

I sobbed, trying to calm my breathing. This was real. This was real. I wasn't in that cavern, my mother was dead, I wasn't drowning. I was okay.

I cast my mind out for Loki, searching for him. He was a few levels below me, half buried in debris up to his waist and water was rising around him. I screamed, trying to shift the beams off of me but the chain reaction only caused more beams to fall around Loki.

Stop moving, Loki commanded, I'm going to be okay. I peered down the side of the destroyed elevator shaft by my head and saw him at the bottom, an entire floor separating us.

Water was still pouring in.

I glanced around for anything to help me and realized the destroyed elevator was mostly what was on top of me, pinning me to the floor but also keeping me from falling down the shaft.

Some of the metal wires that held up the elevator were still there, if I could use my magic to move them, I could lower them down to Loki and he could pull himself out.

The water was up to his chest now and his eyes met mine. I debated shadow traveling but I didn't know what would happen if I vanished from the center of the beams. Would they all collapse on top of him before I could reach him?

I started to form a shield of energy around me, making it so thin that it clung to my figure like a second skin. I could vanish from inside of it and it would be like I had never left.

The water was up to his chin when I finished. I shadow travelled into the water across from him and grabbed him, shadow traveling us out and onto the ground above.

We landed on a clear spot of dirt, standing to the right and behind Steve as he turned to face down Thanos' army.

I realized it was just the three of us and I let the glamour on my powers vanish, letting the silver markings, the silver crown, the pointed ears and the scales, tail and wings form, my chaos magic ready to be released.

I wouldn't hold back this time.

Loki and I exchanged looks and I watched as silver markings appeared on his skin as well and one of his eyes turned gold as the powers of a Celestial Singer flowed through him. "Two is better than one," he said.

I swallowed, nodding to Steve and we stepped forward, ready to face down the army.

"Hey Cap?" A voice crackled through Steve's headpiece that Loki and I could hear and I froze. I knew that voice. "Cap, can you hear me?" Steve froze, we both knew that voice. "On your left."

A portal of golden magic opened up and out came three figures, an entire army behind them. The Falcon came soaring through the portal and hundreds of other portals opened as reinforcements poured from the portals.

Tears streamed down my face as everyone gathered together and I sobbed when Peter went flying by me, giving Loki a high five before he landed beside Tony. Steve and Bucky flanked Tony on either side and I stepped up next to Bucky, Loki directly beside me, our crowns shining.

Thor landed next to us, clapping Loki on the back, his powers flying around him. "AVENGERS!"

"Assemble."

I screamed, running for Thanos with everything I had. I shot into the air, my chaos magic shooting out of me with a blast of energy and an entire flank of the army vanished.

I saw Brunnhilde sweep by me, flying on a Pegasus and a minute later, Pepper appeared, flanking me for a second before vanishing into the fray.

I caught a glimpse of Loki every once in a while, his eyes glowing as an entire army of Frost Giants appeared through a portal Dr. Strange opened and followed Loki into the fray.

Clones of myself peeled off, destroying everything in their path and I flew above it all, searching out Thanos.

We needed to get the Gauntlet out of here and I saw Peter fly by on Thor's hammer. Or was it Steve's now? He grabbed onto Brunnhilde's pegasus and held on as they flew for the van. I had to admire the make of the car to hold up during a god level battle.

I flew around the battle field, trying to reach the gauntlet but was knocked from the sky by a Leviathan. I was thrown to the ground, creating another creator to add to the ever growing amount around me and the Leviathan roared at me, lunging for me. 

Loki was next to me and together we held up our hands, our powers building until the Leviathan vaporized from around us. I turned to Loki, grinning. 

He was shining, staring at me with so much love and happiness even though we were in the middle of battle. "Marry me!" He shouted out as a group of Outriders attacked us. 

I was almost impaled by an Outrider in my shock. "What?" I shouted back, decapitating one. 

Loki spun around, stabbing something behind me, coming so close I could smell the sweat and blood radiating off of him. "Marry me." 

I couldn't keep the smile from painting itself on my face but before I could answer, we were attacked again and we flew around the battle field and it was a minute until I saw him again. He was thrown backwards by an Outrider and I threw a dagger of pure energy, killing it. 

I reached down to help him up, "yes," I responded and I pulled him onto his feet and crashed my lips into his, creating a field of energy around us to protect us from the battle for just one second. 

A blast of bright purple magic threw me backwards as Thanos attacked Carol with the Power Stone. "Come on!" I shouted, "we have to help!" We threw ourselves back into the fray, my heart lighter than it had been a minute ago. 

Despair shot through me a bullet and I turned, knowing instantly who that despair belonged too to find Tony all the way across the battlefield, staring at Strange who was holding up a finger. Tony turned his gaze on Thanos and lunged for him. 

"NO!" I screamed, shadow traveling across the battlefield. Thanos turned his gaze to me and fired the Space Stone and the power cut through my shadow traveling form like it had when I had first fought Loki all those years ago. 

I was thrown to the side and forced to watch Tony take on Thanos as I lay there, my body trying to mend itself against the incredible wave of power. Loki's voice echoed in my head, crying out for me as the pain overcame him as well. 

Thanos had the gauntlet. 

We had lost. 

"I am inevitable," Thanos said, snapping his fingers but nothing happened. He turned his hand around to show the gauntlet empty.

I blinked in shock, getting to my feet as I turned to see Tony, the power of the infinity stones running through his arm.

"And I," Tony said, swallowing down the pain. "Am. Iron Man."

He snapped his fingers and I screamed as the power rushed through him. A white light blinded us and when I opened them, I turned to see Thanos' army dissolving into ash.

But, I didn't have time to focus on that. I crawled across the ground towards Tony. I could save him, I had the power to.

I summoned the dregs of my powers, feeling the familiar pain of my blood boiling as my powers reached their max capacity, my body still with a gapping hole in my torso from the powers of the stone. I reached Tony as he was saying goodbye to Pepper. "It's okay," Pepper was saying, "you can rest."

I crashed to my knees, grabbing his injured arm and putting my hand over his fading heartbeat. "You are not dying on me Stark," I said through tears. Pepper was trembling beside me, I could read her mind since her shields had been destroyed through her grief.

She didn't want to hope, she didn't want to lose that hope if I failed in healing him but she didn't want him to die. She needed him. Morgan needed him.

I gritted my teeth, channeling my power into Tony, but the power that ran through his veins withered and twisted around his life force, trying to take it from me.

But, I had no intention of losing.

The Aether was swirling through his veins along with the powers of each infinity stone and I fought against it, trying to heal him. The Aether hated me, it wanted me to loose.

"Get the stones off of him," I hissed and Loki moved before one of the humans could do it and get themselves killed, yanking the gauntlet off of Tony's arms and trembling underneath the power. For a second, I saw that age old greed flash across his face but he dropped the gauntlet to the ground, putting his hand on my shoulder.

What can I do? Loki could sense my losing battle and I knew anyone with super hearing could hear Tony's heart failing.

"Strange," I barked, "use the Time Stone."

Strange hesitated, "the repercussions of using the Time Stone could cause ripple effects..."

"DO IT!" I commanded, knowing I had crossed a line when I ripped into his mind with what little power I had. 

Strange picked up the gauntlet and plucked off the Time Stone, putting it back into place on his necklace and held out his hand to Tony. "I won't be able to heal him fully, only to the point right after he snapped, before the energy destroyed him or I risk bringing Thanos back."

I nodded as I watched the burn marks and destroyed flesh and bone knit back together, moving back down his hand until Tony was sitting there, only his hand where the gauntlet had been was still destroyed.

The power still rushed through him and I reached out and grabbed his half destroyed skin, letting the power rush through me from the snap.

It went through my body and into Loki from his hand on my shoulder and then into Peter who was leaning against Loki and then into Pepper and down the line until we were all kneeling before Tony, the energy dispersed among us from the snap.

Tony gasped, his eyes opening as the energy rushed from him and through all of us. After a while, it dispersed and I sat, staring at Tony as he blinked at me. "Looks like I'm gonna be around for a little while longer." Pepper laughed through her tears, leaning down and kissing him.

I reached out to heal his body but my magic was spent. At least he was alive. Pepper pushed a button on her suit and a salve coated his hand and elbow where the gauntlet had laid. It would heal him and we would be okay.

Natasha pushed her way to the front, collapsing next to Tony and hugged him tightly. They both cried and I remembered how long they had been friends. "We made it," Natasha said, "all of us."

Loki wrapped me in a hug with Peter and then everyone joined us, holding each other tightly.

We made it.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

KAI

 

Steve stood on the newly built time machine, holding the briefcase with all the stones. His eyes met mine and Bucky’s and I remembered what he had told us, what he was planning on doing.

He was going to talk to Peggy and finally dance with her, one last time, before he came back and helped us train the new Avengers.

I took Bucky’s hand as Steve hugged us both, “don’t do anything stupid while I’m gone,” Steve said.

Bucky smirked but his eyes were sad, “how can I? You’re talking all the stupid with you.”

Steve stepped back up onto the platform and nodded to the Hulk and to Sam who stood nearby. Steve vanished.

“Coming back in,” the Hulk started his countdown.

I shared a glance with Bucky, “do you think he’s going to come back?”

Bucky nodded, “he’ll be fine.”

“Shouldn’t someone have gone with him?”

“Now isn’t really the best time to be worrying, he’s already gone.”

“One,” the Hulk said and pressed a button but Steve didn’t return. Bucky and I exchanged glances, wondering what had happened.

“Get him back,” Sam said, “get him back!”

“Sam!” Bucky said and nodded to a bench sitting by a lake where an old man sat. Steve.

I let them talk and waited until Bucky and Sam had vanished before I approached him.

“I bet you weren’t expecting this,” he said.

I swallowed back my grief, “I just thought I would get you for a little bit longer.” The truth was, I hadn’t seen Steve as ever growing old. I had thought he would live a lot longer with the serum. And now, my age old fear was rearing it’s ugly head. I had seen death in my day, I had seen people taken in the blink of an eye but I had never seen anyone waste away from old age. I had always left before that because it was so painful to see their bodies dying while their eyes stayed bright while their eyes still feared death.

The weight of my immortality weighed down on me. I would outlive them all. I would watch them all die. Eventually even Loki.

I would be alone.

Steve put his arm around me and I realized I was crying. “You have me for a little bit longer.” I reached out for his mind but couldn’t feel it, realizing he had finally put up some shields. I wondered how he really felt, not used to not being able to feel his mind. I could’ve torn past them if I wanted too but I didn’t, letting him keep his thoughts to himself.

I sat by Steve by the lake, staring at the sunset and as darkness fell, I pushed down the feeling that something was about to go terribly wrong.

After setting Steve up in the newly built compound that the Time Stone had restored and trying not to cry about how old he was, I found Loki in the living room, talking with his brother. His face was filled with a strange wonder and I reached out with my mind, wondering what was going on.

“Kai,” Thor called out to me, “I have a present for you and Loki.”

I eyed Loki suspiciously and noticed the strange look on his face. “What is it?”

“Before Steve left with the stones, I had Strange do something.” He held out his hands to us, summoning Storm Breaker to his hands. “Come, I will show you.”

We both took Thor’s hand and the bifrost surrounded us and I wondered where we could be going.

We landed in a familiar domed golden room, a familiar man in golden armour greeted us. “Heimdall?” I asked, my throat catching as I realized exactly where we were.

“Welcome to New Asgard,” Heimdall said. He took a step back and I saw the Rainbow bridge expanding before us up to the… to the palace.

“Strange restored Asgard,” Thor explained, “it’s the same as it was before Hela’s attack. Of course, she stayed dead.”

I noticed the Asguardian refugees on the rainbow bridge, heading for the city, crying tears of joy and sadness as they beheld their old home. As we arrived, they all turned until they were staring at the three of us.

“My king,” Heimdall said, “Welcome home.” And he swept into a bow but he wasn’t facing Thor. He was facing Loki.

One by one, the entire Asguardian population dropped to their knees in front of Loki. I saw him swallow and felt the tears gather in his eyes that matched the ones in mine.

I realized Thor was also bowing and began to sink to my knees but Loki grabbed me, keeping me upright. He grinned at me, “you will never bow to me.” He said, his eyes glinting. “Kaieada, queen of Asgard.”

I swallowed back my tears as Loki kissed me and the crowd cheered. I had accepted that I wouldn’t be able to get back to my people in time to save them and I knew it would haunt me for my entire life but I had found another place where I belonged. Next to someone who loved me and next to a King.

I pulled back to stare into his eyes, “I love you.”

“I love you,” Loki replied and I kissed him again as we teleported to the throne room and he pulled me down onto the throne, casting an illusion on us as he showed me just how much he loved me.

As I stared down at him underneath me, I realized this was to be my eternity.

***  
Io

 

I gasped, opening my eyes as my body reformed out of dust. “Ty?” I gasped, watching as my twin also formed out of ash.

“What the hell happened?” He asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, glancing around for the Eternity Stone but it was gone. Someone must have moved it. I didn’t let it slow me down, readjusting my plan as I realized we needed to find the Eternity Stone and the infinity Stones. “We need the rest of the stones.” I channeled my magic, hunting down the Infinity Stones and trying to find the Eternity Stone but I had done my magic on suppressing its powers too well, I wouldn’t be able to find it through magic. So, we’d need to find the person who had hid it. And I knew just where to start.

“Tell the others that our plan is in action.” I said, “let them know it's time for us to destroy the Avengers from the inside out. Once they’re dead and gone, our people can live once again. And find the Eternity Stone. We’re going to need it if we plan to save our people and kill Kai.”


	15. Epilogue

Steve

 

I was trapped in a shadow world, forced to watch as Kai and Bucky saw an old version of myself return but it wasn’t me. That wasn’t me!

I cried and screamed for hours, trying to connect with Kai, trying to let anyone know what was going on but there was nothing.

Did Bucky really think that I would just leave him like that? Did Kai? Did they think I would really leave my family?

“Please,” I said into the darkness around me, “someone. Anyone!”

As I screamed I could have sworn that the imposter Steve Rodgers turned to look at me, and he grinned over Kai’s shoulder as he hugged her and I screamed again, knowing that she was going to die. Knowing that they all where going to die. And there was nothing I could do about it.

Something tugged at me and I found myself back in the real world, the light blinding me as I stared at Io and Ty, the twins we had taken in and the twins we had sheltered.

“Hello Steve,” Io and Ty said. “Let’s try this again,” Io said, her eyes glinting maliciously. “Where is the Eternity Stone.”

I stared her down although I knew the pain would come when I refused her. “Go to hell.”

And with that, my world was consumed with pain and it soon went dark once again.

I was going to die here.


End file.
